The Foundling Museum

The Foundling Museum Explore compelling stories of love, loss and care through art and objects. Visit us Tuesday-Sunday. We’re free for 21 & under.

We present the story of the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity and public art gallery. Founded in 1739 by the campaigner Thomas Coram, it was an innovative home for children whose mothers couldn’t care for them, supported by some of the leading artists of the day including William Hogarth, George Frideric Handel and Charles Dickens. Their compassion and generosity show that art

transforms lives. Inspired by our 300-year history of social change, today we work with outstanding contemporary artists, writers and musicians to deliver ambitious projects for young people and marginalised groups. With a focus on local communities, early years and care-experienced young people, our pioneering work delivers positive and lasting outcomes. Across the four floors of the Museum we present this relevant historic story through our art and objects. Discover objects and records from the original Foundling Hospital, extraordinary works of art and furnishings, thought-provoking exhibitions plus a programme of concerts, talks and children’s workshops. You can visit us Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm, and Sunday 11am-5pm. Plus, we’re free for age 21 and under.

Beethoven allegedly called him ‘the greatest composer who ever lived’.He composed the most famous work of Western choral...
27/05/2026

Beethoven allegedly called him ‘the greatest composer who ever lived’.

He composed the most famous work of Western choral music ever written.

What was George Frideric Handel doing in the Foundling Hospital’s chapel?

On this day in 1749, Handel held the first of many benefit concerts to raise money for the Foundling Hospital, then a recently opened children's charity which counted some of the biggest artists of the day—including William Hogarth and Thomas Gainsborough—among its supporters.

This first concert was a huge success, and the Hospital's governors invited Handel back the next year. This time, he pulled from the shelf a work that had found success in Dublin but floundered in London: Messiah.

Messiah’s London debut had failed to make a splash, and threatened to relegate the work to obscurity. Audiences were unsure about a sacred subject being performed in a theatre, and a theatre in London’s Covent Garden no less. The Hospital’s Chapel, as yet unconsecrated, was an ideal venue.

For two decades performances of Messiah at the Foundling Hospital were a sell-out success. Handel became a Hospital governor, and the oratorio Messiah’s future as the most popular piece of choral music ever written was set in motion.

🎶 This week is your last chance to discover the enduring magic of Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus' in our current exhibition 'A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music', closing 31 May.

🔍 First slide: George Frideric Handel by Louis Francois Roubiliac, c. 1739

Be sure to grab your sunhat this Bank Holiday ☀️👒📷 Archival photo of Foundling Hospital pupils on summer camp, early 20t...
25/05/2026

Be sure to grab your sunhat this Bank Holiday ☀️👒

📷 Archival photo of Foundling Hospital pupils on summer camp, early 20th century

23/05/2026

How can music bring us together?🎵

🎙️ Listen to our curator Lucy Shanahan describe what the power of music means to her.

Discover for yourself how music connects us, transforms us, and enriches our lives. Visit our current exhibition ‘A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music’, open until 31 May 🎶

Featuring We Are Together Because…, 2025, by Mikhail Karikis, commissioned by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and is part of the CAM Gulbenkian Collection ()

In the final decade of the Founding Hospital's life as a place of institutional care for children, it underwent some rad...
21/05/2026

In the final decade of the Founding Hospital's life as a place of institutional care for children, it underwent some radical - and much-needed - changes. Former pupil Lorna Brown describes what it was like:

'[There was a] headmaster of the boys, and a headmistress over us, and they were both ghastly people. Very unlovable, very strict.

'[After the war] when we came back all these people had gone and we had a new headmaster, and then also with him came all these lovely teachers. These people were kind, they were normal, they were loving.

'I mean they would actually give you a hug or put an arm around you, because before that nobody had even put their hand on your arm as a gesture. I mean, if anyone got near it was really to give you a whack, you know.

'So life was totally different, and life began to be wonderful.'

Hear Lorna in her own voice as part of our oral history project. Just search 'Foundling Voices' on our website.

📷 Lorna as young girl outside the Hospital.
📷 Lorna on her wedding day.
📷 Lorna in her 70s.

Happy ! Here at the Foundling Museum, we celebrate people who have been in care, and all those who care for them ❤️We’r...
18/05/2026

Happy ! Here at the Foundling Museum, we celebrate people who have been in care, and all those who care for them ❤️

We’re a contemporary museum with over 300 years’ worth of art, music, writing and emotive objects. Our story begins with the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity and public art gallery, founded by Thomas Coram and supported by leading 18th-century artists and musicians like William Hogarth and George Frideric Handel.

The Foundling Museum’s mission is to inspire change through the power of the arts and the stories that connect us.

Come and discover compelling stories of love, loss and care. Learn more and book your visit via the link the comments.

15/05/2026

When the Foundling Hospital was established in 1739, it was often accused of encouraging promiscuity, as the Hospital took in children born out of wedlock.

The 18th-century ballad ‘Joyful News to Batchelors and Maids’ made fun of the Hospital, saying women could pass as ‘maids’ after going there.

Author and historian Julie Peakman reflects on these judgements women faced, and wider attitudes around women and s*x in the 18th century.

This simple, unadorned hairpin was left with a baby boy at the Foundling Hospital in June 1756. A very common object, i...
13/05/2026

This simple, unadorned hairpin was left with a baby boy at the Foundling Hospital in June 1756. A very common object, it nonetheless may have been incredibly precious—materially and symbolically—to the woman that left it with her child.

In the 19th century, the tokens were separated from their corresponding admission documents, or ‘billets’. We were able to match this hairpin with a foundling child through the unique imprint it left in the billet book.

This token was left with a baby called Joseph Millet, who was renamed Humphrey Joyce by the Hospital. Humphrey survived childhood, and in 1767 was apprenticed to a needle maker in the parish of St Giles Cripplegate, London.

At a time when material for new clothes was prohibitively expensive for many women, hair was a much more accessible way of keeping up with the latest fashions. Many hairstyles could be recreated with pins. No elaborate wigs required! There wasn’t much difference in the pins that poor women and better-off women wore, so the material value of the hairpin alone doesn’t tell us much about the woman who left this token.

Was it all she had on her? Did she pull it from her own hair at the Hospital’s door?

Learn more about what this token can tell us about women’s style and fashion in the 18th century with fashion historian Dr Serena Dyer in our Take This Token podcast, at the link in the comments.

💬 ‘Maybe she'd done her hair particularly well for that morning, for meeting the people at the Hospital. That's how I like to think of it, that she's reached up to one of her only options, reached up from her hair, pulled it out, maybe some of her hair has fallen down as she's done so. She's giving away one of her few very useful, very valuable possessions alongside that horrible act of having to give up her child as well.’

11/05/2026

We're reminiscing on when Choir of the Earth filled the Foundling Museum with music 🎶

This incredible day celebrated the power of collective music-making, led by conductor Ben England.

The choir performed Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus', with the impact of this iconic composition explored in our current exhibition.

Thank you to everyone who sang with us! There's a few weeks left to still catch 'A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music' - open until 31 May 🎼

07/05/2026

What do you do when you find a lost mitten? 🧤

Watch Museum volunteer Robin show us his favourite, and one of the most overlooked, items in our Collection: a tiny bronze baby’s mitten by Dame Tracey Emin ().

Originally created for the Folkestone Triennial, ‘Baby Things, Mitten’ was part of a series of small bronze sculptures depicting ‘lost’ baby items, including a teddy bear, a little shoe, and this mitten. This cast was made for our 2010 show ‘Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin and Paula Rego: at the Foundling’.

🔎 Tracey Emin DBE, ‘Baby Things, Mitten’, 2008

Have you seen our newest acquisition? 🖼️ This unusual view of the Foundling Hospital was painted by artist and art cri...
03/05/2026

Have you seen our newest acquisition? 🖼️

This unusual view of the Foundling Hospital was painted by artist and art critic Roger Fry. The Hospital was a familiar sight for the artists of the Bloomsbury Group, and several members, including Fry and Duncan Grant, depicted it in their work. Between 1911 and 1912, several of the Bloomsbury Group, including Grant, Virginia Woolf and John Maynard Keynes lived in a house next door to the Foundling Hospital site.

Fry has changed several aspects of the layout, including adding a memorial or fountain in the foreground. The white turret in the centre belonged to a different nearby building but would not have been visible from the viewpoint Fry uses.

Despite the handwritten note by Grant, who owned the work, on the back that reads ‘The Foundling Hospital’, our Collections team took a lot of care to confirm that this is in fact a depiction of the Hospital because of the changes Fry made. For example, there’s a barely visible swirl of paint that we believe mimics the clock that hung on the main building. One key clue to its identity was the branch that hangs over the foreground, which can be seen in other prints and photographs of the Hospital.

We are very grateful to the Bullen-Purse-Wall Bequest for this wonderful gift.

🔍 Roger Fry (1866–1934), ‘The London Foundling Hospital’, c.1910–30

Today marks 276 years since Handel first performed 'Messiah' at the Foundling Hospital 🎼Handel was a strong supporter of...
01/05/2026

Today marks 276 years since Handel first performed 'Messiah' at the Foundling Hospital 🎼

Handel was a strong supporter of the Hospital and raised money for the charity through benefit concerts. From 1750 until his death, he held a popular annual performance of 'Messiah' at the Hospital.

This lifelong commitment to benefit concerts raised £7000 for the Hospital, which would be the equivalent of £1.5 million today!

🎶 Discover the impact of Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ in our exhibition, ‘A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music’, closing 31 May

Address

40 Brunswick Square
London
WC1N1AZ

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 11am - 5pm

Telephone

+442078413600

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