Established | 2004[1] |
---|---|
Location | Brunswick Square London, WC1 United Kingdom |
Coordinates | 51°31′31″N 0°07′18″W / 51.525278°N 0.121667°W |
Type | Art gallery, Museum [1] |
Visitors | c. 40,000 per year[2] |
Director | Emma Ridgway[3] |
Public transit access | Russell Square |
Website | foundlingmuseum.org.uk |
The Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square, London, tells the story of the Foundling Hospital, Britain's first home for children at risk of abandonment. The museum houses the nationally important Foundling Hospital Collection as well as the Gerald Coke Handel Collection, an internationally important collection of material relating to Handel and his contemporaries. After a major building refurbishment, the museum was reopened to the public in June 2004.
The museum explores the history of the Foundling Hospital, which continues today as the children's charity Coram.[4] Artists such as William Hogarth and the composer George Frideric Handel are central to the Hospital story and today the museum celebrates the ways in which creative people have helped improve children's lives for over 275 years. It is a member of The London Museums of Health & Medicine group.[5]