Foundling Museum

The museum: A terraced house with a bright red door. The museum: A terraced house with a bright red door.
Photo by me.

Formerly the Foundling Hospital - set up in 1739 by Thomas Coram to house children who often had to be abandoned due to extreme poverty.

The museum tells that story and also has a large collection of artworks - the hospital raised funds by becoming the city’s first public art gallery.

£12.75 - Under 21s free

foundlingmuseum.org.uk

Exhibitions

The Foundling Portraits: Quentin Blake

Ten drawings of thoughtful children’s faces, imagined by Quentin Blake while he was in self-isolation, are shown for the first time.

Included in entry

Until

HALLELUJAH! Iconic Chorus & Anthem of Hope

This event looks at Handel’s strong link with the Foundling Hospital and how his music, especially the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’, has inspired people for centuries. It also shows how music touches us all, whether we’re singing, playing or just listening.

Included in entry

Until

Music

Talks

Related Attractions

Photo of a musical instrument with a landscape oil painting behind it against a grey panelled wall. Photo of a musical instrument with a landscape oil painting behind it against a grey panelled wall.
Photo by me. Handel clearly liked grey.

Handel Hendrix House

Located in Mayfair

Handel, enormously famous in his day, was a key benefactor of the Foundling Hospital and there’s a gallery dedicated to some of his works on the museum’s top floor.

His house in Mayfair is also a museum and has more in common with the Foundling Museum than you’d expect, both can reveal stories of everyday life in Georgian London for the richest and the poorest. Make sure you talk to the volunteers though! There’s not much to read.