page_title: London Metropolitan Archives
section_title: Charities
hierarchical_section_title: London Metropolitan Archives / Collections / Charities
caption_attribution_description: English: Charterhouse Hospital engraved by Toms, c.1750.
context_page_description: The London Metropolitan Archives is the principal local government archive repository for the Greater London area, including the City of London: it is the largest county record office in the United Kingdom. It was established under its present name in 1997, having previously been known as the Greater London Record Office. It is administered and financed by the City of London Corporation.
  The archive is based at 40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, London. It attracts over 30,000 visitors a year and deals with a similar number of written enquiries. LMA's extensive holdings amount to over 72 miles of records of local, regional and national importance. With the earliest record dating from 1067, the archive charts the development of the capital into a modern-day major world city.
context_section_description: LMA's holdings of charities records date from the early 17th century and include notable foundations such as Archbishop Tenison's Grammar School, the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy and Sutton's Hospital (Charterhouse) which was founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 for the benefit of distressed gentlemen and the education of poor boys. Many of the charities are concerned with housing, education and medicine. One of the major collections is that of the Charity Organisation Society, now known as the Family Welfare Association which was formed to make sure that charitable organisations did not overlap with each other in terms of what they were trying to achieve.
  Amongst the many archives of housing associations held, are records of the Hampstead Garden Suburb. The Hampstead Garden Suburb was the vision and accomplishment of Henrietta Barnett who together with her husband Canon Samuel Augustus Barnett set about creating an estate where the working classes could live within pleasant surroundings. The land near Hampstead was purchased via the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust that she had formed. A total of 323 acres (1.31 km²) were purchased for £140,000 by 1907. The idea was that the estate would be aesthetically pleasing consisting of low-density housing and thoroughly planned with a mix of buildings and nature. The community would be served by a range of local amenities including churches, libraries, schools, an institute of education and shops. Henrietta wanted to bring different classes together in one area. Unfortunately though the houses may have been more modest, they were still too expensive for many working-class people. Increased building costs and the shortage of local employment meant that the suburb would become largely middle-class. By 1936 building was virtually complete and the suburb was home to some 16,000 people. The collection is particularly valuable to those interested in the history of planned settlements, architecture and the life and work of Henrietta Barnett. The archive consists of records of suburb organisations and recreational societies, education institutions and approximately 10,000 plans and 10,000 photographs.
  Among the records of charities are those of the Foundling Hospital, established by Royal charter in 1739 by Thomas Coram as a refuge for abandoned children. It was the sole institution responsible for taking in illegitimate children in the London area for a period of well over 120 years. Coram had been appalled by the number of dead and dying babies on the streets of London. Admission to the new hospital was at first limited because of lack of funds. Infants were to be less than two months old and in good health. Once a child had been admitted they were baptised and given a new name and boarded out to a dry or wet nurse in the country. On reaching the age of three, they were returned to the hospital to receive basic schooling before eventually being apprenticed out to trades or service or enlisted in the armed forces. From 1760 the mother was required to submit a written petition detailing her circumstances: these documents provide a valuable resource for social history. Other documents include records of the lives of the children, nursing methods, apothecaries' prescriptions, and inspectors' reports. Some parts of the collection have been returned to the Coram family, while more modern files concerned with the Berkhamsted site are at Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies.
caption: The Charterhouse: an engraving of c.1770
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