The Foundling Hospital was located in Lamb's Conduit Fields in Bloomsbury, an undeveloped, pastoral area of London. As the city expanded and became more polluted in the 19th century, the Hospital governors began to consider relocation to a healthier, more rural location. With the advent of the railways, travel outside the city was much easier. In 1926, the Foundling Hospital relocated temporarily to Redhill, Surrey, while a new, purpose-built school was constructed in Berkhamsted on land obtained from the Ashlyns Estate. The new building, designed by John Mortimer Sheppard in a neo-Georgian style and modelled on the original Foundling Hospital, opened in 1935.