Foundling Museum, London

[maximus otter]

I found myself in The Smoke again the other day, so I thought I'd visit an attraction I'd long planned to see: the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury.

The Foundling Hospital from which it takes its name was founded in 1739 by a philanthropic sea captain, Thomas Coram. He returned to England after time abroad, and was horrified to see infants abandoned in the streets. For years he wore out shoe leather and door knockers, securing patronage for the Hospital, which took in children whose mothers could not look after them.

The Museum houses an important collection of art, and a lot of material related to the musician Handel, an early supporter., but what I wanted to see were the heartbreaking tokens left by many mothers with their children. The Hospital's regime was to give the kids new names, train them in a trade and start them on a new life. If the mother's circumstances changed, she could return to the hospital years after seeing her child for the last time, and ask to see its records, producing a token to prove her identity and the fact that she was the child's mum. These could be almost anything: a piece of cloth, a medallion, a gambling token, half a coin...

To see the board with them on display, and to hear audio from surviving children (the Hospital ceased its main function only in the 1950s) is a moving experience.

Recommended.

https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/visit-us/

maximus otter

 

[Victory]

One of those places that I have passed so many times and not yet had the courage to go in.

If there, I would recommend a scroll to neighbouring Mecklenburgh Square, one of the best preserved of London's Georgian Squares; amongst former residents were Thomas Carlyle, Virginia Woolf and Emmanuel Litvinoff.

Nearby refreshments could be had at the famous "The Lamb" pub in Lamb's Conduit Street.

 

[Robin]

Many years ago I worked for a bespoke glass firm in Taunton (I don't think they're in business anymore) mainly as their driver/delivery man. They had their own in-house signwriter and on one occasion I was asked to take him up to London so he could finish off the 'frosting' and lettering for the glass sign outside the The Foundling Museum, which I had never heard of at the time. We were met by a very nice gentlemen who worked there. Halfway through the job I needed a pee so I asked him if I could use their facilities and he kindly took me around the side and opened up a door and led me through a big hall to the loos. I didn't take any notice at all of what was in the hall when I went through as we were chatting, it was only when I came out of the loo and was walking back through the hall did I suddenly realized that it was infact a gallery and I was surrounded by the most magnificent paintings that even I could tell were by well-known people. Not knowing anything about the museum at the time I had no idea it even had a gallery.