FOUNDLING HOSPITAL

 But to start with, this is Thomas Coram who was badly treated as a child, went to sea age 11 to escape his poverty, and then trained as a shipwright in America.

When he returned, he was shocked to see the sheer numbers of unwanted children living on the streets.

He badgered the government to give him a grant to start a hospital (not a medical place, but in the original meaning of a place of hospitality) to help these children. He got his grant, but on the stipulation that he never turned an unwanted child away. In four years, they received over 15,000 children. Those numbers were unsustainable, so they had to devise a system to reduce numbers and maintain standards of care. When it closed in 1953, it had cared for over 27,000 abandoned children.

The foundling hospital no longer exists per se, but the charity that Thomas founded, is now called 'Coram', and it finds foster homes for children, rather than caring for them on site.

Not sure of all the details yet, but he formed an alliance with the artist William Hogarth, and he encouraged other artists to paint pictures to raise funds for the charity.  In doing so, Hogarth created Britain's first public art gallery, and the collection contains works by himself, Reynolds and Gainsborough, amongst others.

George Frederick Handel was another prime contributor to the funds. He donated the proceeds from annual performances of The Messiah, and bequeathed the original manuscripts to the hospital. The museum has since acquired a great number of items associated with Handel.

The museum building houses an extensive art collection. I will name them, when I work out which ones they are. :)

(above) William Hogarth - The March Of The Guards To Finchley (1750)

William Hogarth designed uniforms for the children. The girls are pictured above. The uniform for the boys was black breeches, eton shirts, black bow ties, and a red ribbed jacket.

(above) Charles Brooking - 'A Flagship Before The Wind, Under Easy Sail, With A Cutter, A Ketch, and Other Vessels' (1754)

The museum covers three floors of the handsome building. The ground floor covers the actual hospital story and the children. The first floor is given over to the art collection. The second floor is all about Handel, and is my favourite. They've got these big red leather armchairs see, with built in speakers in the wing pieces, and buttons on the arm which, when pressed, play Handel's music. ...........

The keyboard is the actual one depicted in the picture above,whilst below, is a picture of a piece of Handel's music written in his own hand (from the British Library). 

This round table shows the high spots of the life of Handel, in the timeline context of other composers