Britain, in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, experienced a period of great social change in which the rapidly growing news media paid increasing attention to the activities of the poorer classes.

The manner of Ayres's death caused great public interest, with large numbers of people attending her funeral and contributing to the funding of a memorial.

In December 1877, her sister Mary Ann (older than Alice by eleven years) married an oil and paint dealer, Henry Chandler.

[1] After rescuing the three girls, Ayres tried to jump herself, but overcome by smoke inhalation, fell limply from the window, striking the projecting shop sign.

Ayres was rushed to nearby Guy's Hospital[1] where, because of the public interest that her story excited, hourly bulletins were issued about her health and Queen Victoria sent a lady-in-waiting to enquire after her condition.

[9] On the front of the obelisk is inscribed: Sacred to the memory of ALICE AYRES, aged 26 years, who met her death through a fire which occurred in Union Street, Borough, the 24th of April, 1885 A.D.Amidst the sudden terrors of the conflagration, with true courage and judgement, she heroically rescued the children committed to her charge.

To save them, she three times braved the flames; at last, leaping from the burning house, she sustained injuries from the effects of which she died on April 26th 1885.This memorial was erected by public subscription to commemorate a noble act of unselfish courage.

"The right hand side of the monument lists the ten members of the Alice Ayres Memorial Committee, chaired by Rev H. W. P. Richards.

[9] The British government had traditionally paid little attention to the poor, but in the wake of the Industrial Revolution attitudes towards the accomplishments of the lower classes were changing.

[24] The roll would be a long one, but I would cite as an example the name of Alice Ayres, the maid of all work at an oilmonger's in Gravel-lane, in April, 1885, who lost her life in saving those of her master's children.The facts, in case your readers have forgotten them, were shortly these:—Roused by the cries of "Fire" and the heat of the fiercely advancing flames the girl is seen at the window of an upper story, and the crowd, holding up some clothes to break her fall, entreat her to jump at once for her life.

She jumps, but too feebly, falls upon the pavement, and is carried insensibly to St. Thomas's Hospital, where she dies.Watts had originally proposed that the monument take the form of a colossal bronze figure,[23] but by 1887 was proposing that the memorial take the form of "a kind of Campo Santo", consisting of a covered way and marble wall inscribed with the names of everyday heroes, to be built in Hyde Park.

[28] Sir Francis Hastings Doyle also wrote a well-received poem in honour of Ayres,[29] as did leading social reformer and women's rights campaigner Laura Ormiston Chant.

Her loving tenderness to the children committed to her care and her pure gentle life were remarked by those around her before there was any thought of her dying a heroic death.

"[7] In 1890, a series of painted panels by Walter Crane were unveiled in Octavia Hill's Red Cross Hall, 550 yards (500 m) from the site of the Union Street fire.

[31][n 7] Inspired by George Frederic Watts's proposals, the panels depicted instances of heroism in everyday life;[32] Watts himself refused to become involved in the project, as his proposed monument was intended to be a source of inspiration and contemplation as opposed to simply commemoration,[20] and he felt that an artistic work would potentially distract viewers from the most important element of the cases, the heroic sacrifices of the individuals involved.

[33] It is an idealised image depicting Ayres as the rescued rather than the rescuer, blending religious imagery with traditional 19th-century symbols of British heroism, and bears no relationship to actual events.

[34] Ayres, in a long and flowing pure white gown, stands at a first floor window, surrounded in flames and holding a small child.

[9] Although in reality Ayres had been at a much higher level of the building and the heat of the burning oil and gunpowder had made it impossible for the fire brigade to approach the building,[4] by depicting Ayres with the fireman and sailor, widely seen as symbols of British heroism and British strength, Crane's picture further enhanced her growing reputation as a heroic figure.

[39] Made by William De Morgan in the Arts and Crafts style, the green-and-white tablet reads "Alice Ayres, daughter of a bricklayer's labourer who by intrepid conduct saved 3 children from a burning house in Union Street, Borough, at the cost of her own young life April 24, 1885".

[3] Ayres was an uneducated working-class woman, who after her death underwent what has been described as "a secular canonisation",[41] at a time when, despite the gradual formal recognition of the contributions of the lower classes, national heroes were generally male and engaged in exploration, the military, religion or science and engineering.

[35] Barrington, writing five years after the fire at the unveiling of Price's panel, acknowledges in a footnote that Ayres was related to the Chandlers,[45] but nonetheless describes her as displaying the "typical English virtues—courage, fortitude, and an unquestioning sense of duty".

[46] While George and Mary Watts and their fellow paternalist social reformers, along with the broadly sympathetic mainstream British press, portrayed Ayres as an inspirational selfless servant to her employer, others had a different view.

The left-wing Reynolds's Weekly Newspaper complained that the lack of support for Ayres's family from the state was symbolic of poor treatment of workers as a whole.