Foundlings at night.

Had a great day yesterday. We left fairly early and went over to the National Museum, about 10 minute walk, for about an hour. We saw the recently unearthed Staffordshire Hoard of Viking gold. In July of this year a fellow found it in his field with a metal detector. Anyone want to go halvsies on a metal detector? Another 10 minutes and we were at The Foundling Museum. In the 1720's, Thomas Coram, a retired shipwright, was horrified at all of the abandoned children in London. For almost 20 years he struggled with the powers to do something to help them. Finally in 1739 he was granted the Royal charter to start the Foundling Hospital. G F Handel was very instrmental (ha) in getting it running and it still exists as the Coram Foundation. It was also the first public art gallery in England. We couldn't take pics unfortunately. We got to see a concert sponsered by the New London Orchestra of young performers from the Purcell School.
Hustled off to the National Theatre again to take the back stage tour. I wanted to stay there so much. After the tour we attended a performance of The Pitmen Painters. It was very powerful. A group of coal miners in the 30's started an art appreciation class and the upshot was a group of artists that became very famous in their time. A true story, written by the guy who wrote Billy Elliot. Walked across the Thames and home.