The Foundling Museum
A museum near Coram's Fields telling the story of the Foundling Hospital, Britain's first children's charity and first public art gallery, founded in 1739 by philanthropist Thomas Coram.
- Museum
- Price: £ · Budget
Did you know
Coram spent seventeen years campaigning for a Royal Charter before he could open the hospital, and once it existed, William Hogarth persuaded leading artists to donate works to it while Handel gave annual benefit concerts of Messiah, making it Britain's first public art gallery as a side effect of raising money for abandoned children.
Local tip
The museum holds the world's largest private collection of Handel memorabilia purely because of this fundraising history, so it's worth as much for music history as for the story of the hospital itself.
Finding it
- Address
- Foundling Museum, 40, Brunswick Square, King's Cross, London Borough of Camden, Greater London, England, WC1N 1AZ
- Nearest station
- Russell Square (Tube), 313 m away
Details change, so check with the place before you set off.
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