Plaque Wording: These grounds, the site of the Foundling Hospital, established in 1739 by Captain Thomas Coram, were offered for sale as housing land in 1926 when owing to changing social conditions the old Hospital was sold and demolished. After eight years of anxiety to its fate the site was eventually preserved for the use and welfare of the children of Central London by the generosity and vision of Harold Viscount Rothermere, by the efforts of the Foundling Site Appeal Council, by the co-operation of the governors of the Foundling Hospital and of the Education Committee of the London County Council, and by the enthusiasm of many thousands of donors, large and small, who contributed their money or their toil to the saving of these nine acres, henceforth to be known as Coram's Fields.