Trip To The Foundling Museum

 

   

    Today I took a short walk through the neighborhood to the Foundling Museum. My morning class was headed on an excursion to the museum and cut through Russell Square to save some time and after our discussion in Global Urbanization, I was able to immediately notice the hostile architecture of the benches as well as the number of commuters on their way to work who were also using the square as a way to cut down on time. When we arrived at the museum we were greeted by our tour guide who gave us a history of the orphans who used to live on the property (the museum used to be a hospital), and how the hospital's founder Thomas Coram, had used his connection with artists, musicians, and aristocrats to fund his acts of charity. A fact that I found particularly interesting was the level of poverty in London during the 1700s, specifically an area that was referred to as gin lane where the water was undrinkable and the residents exclusively drank alcohol, leading to crime and of course the neglect of children. This made me curious about the living conditions in some of these earlier urban cities, as hygienic and living standards are often overlooked in history books. The experience at the foundling museum also sparked some curiosity about how poverty has been addressed in urban societies over time, particularly as during the hospital's period of operations, donating to and visiting the orphan children was often seen as a form of entertainment for the upper classes. However, something I really liked about the way the hospital was run is that they took advantage of this morbid curiosity by holding art showings on the hospital grounds, with an entire gallery room of original paintings on display for citizens of London to view, and be assured that the price of admittance was going toward a good cause. I really enjoyed my trip to the museum as I believe it was a part of London I might not have seen otherwise and I felt that the visit was not only a deep dive into some lesser-known history but also a call to commit myself to more charitable works and to try and donate when I can. 

- Francesca :)