The Foundling Hospital was established by the philanthropist Thomas Coram to care for babies either abandoned or given up by destitute mothers. There were few options for women unable to care for their babies and about a thousand babies a year were abandoned on the streets of London. Coram had campaigned for year After  years of campaigning, Thomas Coram  received a Royal Charter from King George II in 1739 which allowed him to  to establish the Foundling Hospital.  
 
The artist William Hogarth encouraged artists to donate work and the composer George Frideric Handel,  donated an organ and conducted annual benefit concerts of Messiah in the Hospital’s chapel and helped make the Hospital into one of the most fashionable venues of the time.