She returned to London to the Slade School of Fine Art in 1877, continuing to study drawing and painting but, in 1880, Professor Alphonse Legros introduced a course in sculpture and modelling, which Rope followed to good effect, radically influencing the direction of her artistic career.

[1] These small panels "were primarily designed to be executed at low cost and repeated if desired, so that they could be used by others than the very rich"[5] However, major architectural commissions continued, including large figures of Faith, Hope and Charity for Morley Town Hall, Leeds (since lost), a 20' long panel for Rotherhithe Town Hall (destroyed by wartime bombing), and a memorial executed in cement at St Mary's, Bolton-on-Swale.

Earlier, in 1894, another Garrett associate, Octavia Hill, had commissioned bas-reliefs by Rope for the drawing room of the Women's University Settlement in Nelson Square, Blackfriars.

[7] "The New Sculpture" by Beattie, S., Yale University Press, London, 1983 "Miss Ellen Rope, Sculptor" by Kendall, B., in The Artist, December 1899, pp.

251–2 "Working Against The Grain; Women Sculptors in Britain c.1885-1950" by Rose, P., Liverpool University Press, 2020; 21, 117, 175-77, 215-20, 221, 263-64 "Arts & Crafts Churches" by Hamilton, A., Lund Humphries, 2020; 133,209, 217, 255,261