The Foundling Museum, London: All year

The Foundling Hospital continues as a charity today. This building records its history, as well as exhibiting an impressive collection of donated artworks.

The Foundling Hospital was the first home for abandoned children in London and it soon attracted sponsors. William Hogarth donated a picture in 1740, prompting many artists, including Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds, to do the same, forcing the hospital to create a Picture Room in 1857 to display the gifts. The composer George Frideric Handel composed a piece for a benefit event, which lead to annual performances of the Messiah, an important source of income.

While the charity continues work with children and young people under the name of Coram, the collection from the Picture Room is still at the Foundling Museum, a charity in itself, on the site of the London hospital headquarters. Apart from the major donations - usually in the form of works of art - the museum explains the everyday preoccupations of the Foundation, including the day it opened when a queue of mothers tearfully deposited babies there that they could no longer support.

Although the original building was knocked down, much of the sumptuous 18th century interiors have been recreated to house the collection. The General Coke Handel Collection is also a highlight, featuring manuscripts, libretti, engravings and other memorabilia. Artifacts from the hospital itself span four centuries. Most beautiful of all is a collection of tokens, which were pinned to a child's clothes on arrival at the hospital, and served as identification if their mothers ever returned to find them.

The Foundling Museum

40 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AZ

Opening Times

Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 - 17:00; Sunday, 11:00 - 17:00

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The Foundling Museum, London: All year
The Foundling Museum, London: All year
The Foundling Museum, London: All year
The Foundling Museum, London: All year

Opening Hours

Monday:
Closed
Tuesday:
Closed
Wednesday:
10:00 - 17:00
Thursday:
10:00 - 17:00
Friday:
10:00 - 17:00
Saturday:
10:00 - 17:00
Sunday:
10:00 - 17:00
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