The wooden scale model shows the canvas chute which enabled the rescued person to descend without climbing down the ladder.
Firemen, from the insurance brigades and the London Fire Engine Establishment, would put out the fires but did not provide much in the way of helping people to escape. In 1828 the RSPLF was formed to provide escape ladders which were put on street corners at night and kept in churchyards during the day.
The wheeled escape ladders could reach up to 60 feet high, and conductors had to undergo training for two to six months to work the ladders. The ladders were given to the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1867.
Some escape ladders had a canvas chute so that ladies could slide down without showing their ankles!
