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5. That the Vestry have protested against the removal of the Escape in question, and
have been heard by deputation in support of their views by the Fire Brigade Committee
of the Council.
6. That the Council have, after being placed in possession of the Vestry's views in the
matter, decided to place three ladders, 24 feet long, near the Fire Alarms in Rotherhithe
Street in substitution for the Escape; but that, as a matter of fact, one ladder
only is 24 feet long.
7. That in the opinion of the Vestry the ladders in question may be a source of danger
rather than safety, inasmuch as to escape from a burning building by means of an ordinary
unprotected ladder requires not only great presence of mind and courage, but
also a certain amount of skill, qualities which are not always to be found in persons
under ordinary circumstances, and in the excitement of a conflagration are sure to be
found wanting in a good many people, but especially in women and children and aged
and infirm persons.
8. That the want of a site need not stand in the way of the Council reinstating the
Escape, as the Rev. H. H. Selby Hele, the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, is willing to
permit the escape to be located permanently in Trinity Church Yard.
9. That your Memorialists feel sure that if members of the Council were as cognisant of
the peculiar nature of the district as your Memorialists are, they would never have
sanctioned such a retrogade movement as the removal of the Escape, and if they make
themselved acquainted with the exceptional features of the locality they will at once
order the reinstatement of the Escape in the district
10. That a public meeting to protest against the action of the Council has been held in
the neighbourhood, at which between 400 and 500 people were present, when some
strong resolutions were passed (copies of which have already been forwarded to the
Council), which resolutions your Memorialists heartily support and endorse.
Therefore your Memorialists ask that they may be allowed to send six or more of
their members to the London County Council, as a deputation, to urge upon the
Council the necessity of the Fire Escape recently removed from the neighbourhood
of Bickley Row, Rotherhithe, being at once reinstated; and of the urgent
necessity of some further means of protection from fire being afforded, in the