Four of Cambridge’s most famous figures have been writ large by the illustrator Quentin Blake in an epic work of art marking the University’s 800th anniversary.

A giant mural featuring Blake’s instantly recognisable drawings - measuring more than 26 feet high and 100 feet long - has been installed along King’s Parade, at the front of King’s College.

Four larger than life figures from Cambridge’s past are depicted in Blake’s playful signature style, familiar from dozens of children’s books. An irritable-looking Henry VIII listens to the choir of King’s College Chapel, Charles Darwin sits reading on top of a giant Galapagos tortoise, Isaac Newton peers through a prism and a blind John Milton completes his epic retelling of the Fall of Man, Paradise Lost.

The drawings are taken from Cambridge 800: An Informal Panorama, which was produced by Blake earlier this year. The complete panorama, made up of 15 original drawings, was unveiled in September of this year and is currently the centrepiece of the Art Walk at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

The pictures are faithful enlargements of pen-and-ink watercolour drawings. Quentin Blake, who is a graduate of Downing College, said: “To me, this is a way of saying thank-you for my years as an undergraduate and the honorary degree that the University also gave me. I feel very privileged to have been given this opportunity to contribute to these 800th anniversary celebrations.”

The art covers scaffolding along the front of King’s, which was erected to complete essential restoration works on the Wilkins screen wall along King’s Parade.

The mural will be on display through the rest of the anniversary year, which will wind up with a spectacular finale event in January 2010. The full set of Blake’s drawings may be viewed online via the 800th anniversary website, linked above right.

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