Foundling Museum@FoundlingMuseum

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

 40 Brunswick Square, London
foundlingmuseum.org.uk
Joined January 2010
3,649 Photos and videos
If you love our stories and collection, and want to stay up to date on what's on at the Museum, follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. We're @FoundlingMuseum everywhere. We will only be sharing important updates on X from now on, so make sure you don't miss out!
Two people photographed from behind looking at Hogarth's March of the Guards.

ALT Two people photographed from behind looking at Hogarth's March of the Guards.

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Our new exhibition, Where We Grow: nature, nurture & childhood, opens 17 November 🪴 Explore the powerful relationship between childhood and the natural world, from the Foundling Hospital’s 18th-century landscape to the spaces that continue to shape children’s lives today.
A shallow, round, pale blue tin decorated with small yellow flowers. The tin is stuffed with white cotton wool. Nestled in the wool are dozens of tiny ceramic birds' eggs of many different sizes and colours, including blues, greens, oranges and browns.

ALT A shallow, round, pale blue tin decorated with small yellow flowers. The tin is stuffed with white cotton wool. Nestled in the wool are dozens of tiny ceramic birds' eggs of many different sizes and colours, including blues, greens, oranges and browns.

A black and white, slightly hazy photo of a group f children playing together in long grass. Some are wearing flat caps. In the background, overshadowed by large plane trees, are the remnants of a colonnade, decorated with the Foundling Hospital's coat of arms.

ALT A black and white, slightly hazy photo of a group f children playing together in long grass. Some are wearing flat caps. In the background, overshadowed by large plane trees, are the remnants of a colonnade, decorated with the Foundling Hospital's coat of arms.

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Discover paintings, sculpture, photography and film by Andy Holden, Joy Gregory, Mark Neville and more, alongside archival material and historic objects. Book your ticket today. Free with admission or an annual pass.
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🔍 Andy Holden, How the artist was led to the study of nature, 2020. Photograph by Daniel Brown. Children in the Long Grass, c. 1929. Courtesy Coram's Fields.
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Our current exhibition, A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music, closes on Sunday 31 May 🎵 🎟️Grab your ticket now: foundlingmuseum.org.uk
Foundling Museum@FoundlingMuseum
2 Oct 2025
Our autumn exhibition, A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music, opens today 📢 Explore the life-affirming power of collective song through the legacy Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus' and 300 years of archival, visual, and aural history. Visit us now: bit.ly/grandchorus
'A choir of orphan girls', c. 1900, by Thérèse Schwartze⁠

ALT 'A choir of orphan girls', c. 1900, by Thérèse Schwartze⁠

Still from Mikhail Karikis We are Together Because 2025 at Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian Photographer Pedro Pina⁠

ALT Still from Mikhail Karikis We are Together Because 2025 at Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian Photographer Pedro Pina⁠
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Dive into the magic of the festive season with beloved children's author @MichaelRosenYes ✨ Join us this Saturday for a day of festive rhymes read by Michael from classics like Christmas Tree Lights and Chocolate Cake. 🎟️Book your spot before they go: bit.ly/4oLbdTz
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Our autumn exhibition, A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music, opens today 📢 Explore the life-affirming power of collective song through the legacy Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus' and 300 years of archival, visual, and aural history. Visit us now: bit.ly/grandchorus
'A choir of orphan girls', c. 1900, by Thérèse Schwartze⁠

ALT 'A choir of orphan girls', c. 1900, by Thérèse Schwartze⁠

Still from Mikhail Karikis We are Together Because 2025 at Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian Photographer Pedro Pina⁠

ALT Still from Mikhail Karikis We are Together Because 2025 at Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian Photographer Pedro Pina⁠

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🎨'A choir of orphan girls', c. 1900, by Thérèse Schwartze⁠ 📸Still from Mikhail Karikis We are Together Because 2025 at Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian Photographer Pedro Pina⁠
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Foundling Museum retweeted
School of Booze@SchoolofBooze
28 May 2025
I'm having the absolute joy of hosting a couple of events (beer & gin) for London's @foundlingmuseum in Bloomsbury This is the room in which they happen. I've already hosted the beer event and the gin tasting event is on June 27th 2025. Details here: foundlingmuseum.org.uk/event…
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For our final Women's History Month post, we're spotlighting one woman who made a heartbreaking choice for the sake of her baby.
A letter from the Secretary of the Foundling Hospital, to Richard Endsleigh, overlaid with the text 'your mother has been anxious to know you for some time'.

ALT A letter from the Secretary of the Foundling Hospital, to Richard Endsleigh, overlaid with the text 'your mother has been anxious to know you for some time'.

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"When I left, that was the last I saw of my mother, and unfortunately she was crying. I was too young. Too young and foolish. Didn't even think of it. Not even used to it. [...] To me it was just - [after life at the Hospital] - it meant absolutely nothing."
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In the early 2000s, Richard saw the letters his mother had sent to the Hospital for the first time. "And out all these letters came. Letters, about nearly 50, I think. Well, it's a shame that I learnt so late about how good my mother was."
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This token is recorded in Foundling Hospital records as a ‘silver tassel with ditto spangles’. It’s about 3 inches wide, and constructed of spangles – sequins – carefully affixed to a very fine wire ✨
An image of an ornament made out of metal sequins affixed to a very fine coiled wire. Its shape is hard to discern, but it slightly resembles an angel.

ALT An image of an ornament made out of metal sequins affixed to a very fine coiled wire. Its shape is hard to discern, but it slightly resembles an angel.

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Though dull now, this ornament would have sparkled when it was created. It’s been damaged and tarnished over time so it’s hard to discern the original form, but now, by accident, it almost resembles an angel.
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This token was left with a child in May 1748. Her birth name is unknown, but she was christened Roberta Corbett by the Hospital. Roberta was claimed later that same year, by Bridget and John Sinnott - her parents.
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