Non Touristy Things to Do In London - Dickens Museum and Foundlings
This is a very interesting area and a lovely place to visit for non touristy things to do in London like the Charles Dickens Museum and Foundling Museum, just a stone's throw from Lambs Conduit Street.
Dickens and his wife moved here in 1837 and he wrote Oliver Twist and Pickwick Papers here. They’ve got a bunch of his writing materials, paintings furniture and much more….
In Long Yard is where the original conduit was. William Lamb 1577 paid £1500 to renovate a conduit house in Snow Hill and water was fed off to here from a tributary of River Fleet, which people said tasted ok compared to the later New River which opened.
The Lamb Pub - from 1720 in named after William Lamb. It still has snob screens from Victorian times so you could drink without being observed by the bar staff.
Lambs Conduit Street itself is mostly independent shops cafe, wine bars. No chains. Partially pedestrianised and even the supermarket is run by the community.
Great Ormond Street Hospital originally only had 10 beds (1852) 1st UK hospital dedicated to children.
in 1929 JM Barrie gave all rights of his plays and books to fund the hospital’s research.
The Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square (Coram Fields) - In 1739 Thomas Coram, master mariner was appalled at the amount of children abandoned by their parents so he campaigned for 17 years until George II granted a royal charter for the Foundling Hospital.
Hogarth and Handel helped. Hogarth got people to donate art and Handal performed the Messiah in the chapel.
It became first public art gallery in UK and it’s now the Foundling museum.