Olivia Ahmad
Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration
Framing New River Head
Panel: Institutions
New River Head is a former waterworks in Clerkenwell, central London. Essentially derelict since it was decommissioned in the 1950s, the site was established in the early 1600s as the headquarters of the New River Company and a major hub of its infrastructure. From 1619 onwards it was the termination point of the New River, an artificial waterway that carried water from springs in Hertfordshire to Clerkenwell, before it was piped to the City of London. Today, the New River still provides 8-12% of North London’s water and the New River Company’s legacy - a privatised water industry and the consequences of the flow of capital between London’s infrastructure and colonial trade – is keenly felt. However, the New River story is not well known.
When London’s water industry was re-privatised in the 1980s, plans to make New River Head into a profitable mixed-use housing development began emerging. These were vigorously and successfully resisted by local community, heritage and activist groups, who wanted to see the site put to public use and its story told. As a result, Islington Council issued a planning brief for the site, saying that any future plans must incorporate a dedicated heritage centre.
In 2019, charity Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration acquired New River Head in consultation with the groups who had campaigned for its public use. Since then, it has worked to make it into a public arts space (Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, due to open in 2026), making a scheme for restoration, building advocacy and raising funds, alongside developing plans for programming and participation.
Olivia Ahmad is a curator, editor and writer. She has a BA in Illustration from Cambridge School of Art and an MA in Museum Studies from Newcastle University. Olivia trained as a curator on the Museums Association’s Diversify scheme and has worked in curatorial roles at Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums, Seven Stories The National Centre for Children’s Books and the Northern Design Festival. Her writing has appeared in MacGuffin, Eye Magazine, AIGA Eye on Design and It’s Nice That. From 2018-2021 she was editor of the AOI’s Varoom magazine. Olivia was formerly a trustee of East End Women’s Museum. She is Artistic Director at Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration.