Exhibits-app

Bring back knowing what’s going on in your neighbourhood! Here it is folks - What’s in your borough episode 1!

When a child was admitted to the Foundling Hospital, everything they came with was taken away, which included their clothes and even their name.

From the age of six, they were put to work. Boys in the gardens or weaving. Girls in domestic chores. All of them knitting and darning, learning to keep a neat appearance. Education was basic — mostly reading, and mainly so they could read the Bible.

They stayed until they were 14. Then they were apprenticed out into the world to learn a trade like shoemaking and tailoring. Some couldn’t leave at all, because they had nowhere to go, or couldn’t cope independently.

It wasn’t a fairy tale, but for 25,000 children who were left on the streets of London with nothing, it was a chance. And in 18th century London, a chance was everything.

If you’d like to join us as we piece together stories like this across London’s museums, why not follow along? We’ve got some really interesting places to visit this season:

📍 The Foundling Museum
📍 Old Operating Theatre Museum
📍 South London Gallery
📍 Strawberry Hill House
And many more…

You can find the full episode on YouTube — the link is in our bio!

When mothers left their babies at the Foundling Hospital, they tucked a small token in with them. A tiny, secret object, hidden away and folded inside a page of a record book, waiting.

Because what if they came back?

Every child admitted was carefully recorded by a clerk — their details written down, their token folded neatly inside the page like a little parcel.

To reclaim your child, you had to describe your token exactly. The coin. The button. The exact scrap of ribbon. If it matched, you could reclaim your child.

If it didn’t? The child remained in the Hospital’s care.
These tiny objects were secret keys. Unfortunately for many children, nobody ever came back for them.

The Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury holds this entire collection — which we think is absolutely worth a visit.

If you’d like to join us as we piece together stories like this across London’s museums, why not follow along?

We’ve got some really interesting places to visit this season:

📍 The Foundling Museum
📍 Old Operating Theatre Museum
📍 South London Gallery
📍 Strawberry Hill House
And many more…

You can find the full episode on YouTube — the link is in our bio!

When the Foundling Hospital opened its doors in 1741, it was first come, first served. But the need was so overwhelming, so heartbreaking in its scale, that they simply ran out of space.

So they came up with a system.

Mothers would reach into a bag and draw a coloured ball. White meant your child was accepted. Red meant you were on the waiting list — hope, but no guarantees. Black meant rejection. No admission. No second chances. No appeal.

Can you imagine standing in that queue? Knowing everything rested on what your hand pulled out of a bag?
If you’d like to join us as we piece together stories like this across London’s museums, why not follow along?

We’ve got some really interesting places to visit this season:

📍 The Foundling Museum
📍 Old Operating Theatre Museum
📍 South London Gallery
📍 Strawberry Hill House
And many more…

You can find the full episode on YouTube — the link is in our bio!

Hidden inside this London museum is the petition that saved 25,000 children.

Thomas Coram arrived in London around 1720 and saw children literally abandoned in the streets, so he decided to do something about it.

He didn’t just want to find a building and put children in it. He wanted a proper, long term solution. And for that, he needed the big guns - Kings, Lords, Dukes, Earls. Not just for their money (though that helped), but because their names on a petition meant nobody could ignore it.

So he spent 20 years. Twenty years. Knocking on doors, collecting signatures, building a case. Until finally, nobody could say no.

And the result was Britain’s first children’s charity, Coram, which is still in operation today! You can find the original petition for the Foundling Hospital in the Museum in Bloomsbury.

If you’d like to join us as we piece together stories like this across London’s museums, why not follow along?

We’ve got some really interesting places to visit this season:
📍 The Foundling Museum
📍 Old Operating Theatre Museum
📍 South London Gallery
📍 Strawberry Hill House
And many more…

You can find the full episode on YouTube — the link is in our bio!