Exhibitions & Galleries

Permanent Collection

The Foundling Museum tells the story of the Foundling Hospital, London’s first home for abandoned children and of three major figures in British history: its campaigning founder the philanthropist Thomas Coram, the artist William Hogarth and the composer George Frideric Handel. This remarkable collection of art and social history is now housed in a restored and refurbished building adjacent to the original site of the Hospital, demolished in 1926.

The Foundling Museum is based next door to Coram which continues Thomas Coram’s pioneering work with vulnerable children and provides a living link with the original mission of the Foundling Hospital.

London’s Foundlings

Up to a thousand babies a year were abandoned in early 18th-century London. In 1739 Thomas Coram established a “Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Children” which looked after more than 27,000 children until its closure in 1953. The Foundling Museum tells the story of the foundlings, how they lived and displays the many poignant objects relating to their lives at the Hospital.

Britain’s First Art Gallery

William Hogarth (1697-1764), one of the original Governors of the Foundling Hospital, encouraged leading artists of the day to donate works to the children’s home, with the aim of attracting wealthy potential benefactors.

In doing so, he created Britain’s first public exhibition space, which became a centre of artistic experimentation and led to the formation of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768. Today the collection contains works by Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Wilson, Hayman, Highmore, Roubiliac and Rysbrack, displayed in fully restored interiors – as they would have been seen by visitors to the original Hospital in the 1700s.

The Foundling Hospital Archive

The Foundling Museum not only showcases the Foundling Hospital art collection and the Gerald Coke Handel Collection but most importantly tells the story of the 27,000 children who passed through the Hospital between 1739 and 1954. While some important documentation dealing with the children's lives is on display at the Foundling Museum most is contained in the Foundling Hospital Archives.

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