A non-fireplace in the bedroom?

[sorrel_101]

Hi All,

Sorry for bothering you all again, i'm sure you're getting fed up of me by now but this house is just causing me to scratch my head.

Would the victorians have had fake fireplaces? or would they have used tiles round anything else upstairs?

We've pulled up the carpet in one of the bedrooms and have found what LOOKS like is the remains of a fireplace (pic below) - however there is no sign of a chimney, not at all. the brickwork (outside, inside, above and below) is all original and unchanged and there is honestly no sign of any chimney. Also this room is actually partitioned and the room next door used to be part of it - the room next door has the fireplace that would have heated the room when it was one so i just don't know hat this is??

Does anyone have any idea? it certainly looks like a fireplace??

thanks and sorry again with my stupid questions!

Sorrel

 

[JoceAndChris]

Not stupid questions at all and if you don't get much of a response it's probably because people are scratching their heads and wondering, not because people aren't interested.

It's difficult to make any judgement on it without wandering about your house but you say the room next door has a fireplace, so it must have a chimney? Could it be that the fireplace in this room you've photographed shared the other chimney?

I can't think what else the tiles might be for, unless they used to tile the floor in front of a washstand. :?

 

[Feltwell]

Fed up?? Not a bit of it, I love puzzles like this and I'd bet I'm not the only one on here!!!

To my mind, without any doubt, that's where a fireplace or stove used to be or was intended to be. Fake fireplaces? Well anything's possible I suppose, but I've never heard of that. A fireplace was very much a functional thing to keep warm, especially upstairs where they were generally smaller, plainer and cheaper than downstairs.

It looks like it goes under your partition? You're absolutely sure the brickwork is all unchanged, there's no way it could have linked up with the flue in the other room? Could the fireplace in the other room be a later addition?

The only other thing I can think of is that the house was in the process of being built and they decided to change the fireplace location part way through construction. Doesn't seem that likely though.

Haven't been much help here have I? :lol:

Oh, just seen Joce's post - the washstand is a good idea, but I reckon you'd tile the whole area if you were doing that, and not have the back section like a plain constructional hearth.

 

[sorrel_101]

it's so difficult to explain in owrds and even with photos sometimes.

where this 'fireplace' or whatever it is is it's on a different wall to the other fireplace. this is on an external wall whereas the other fireplace is on an interior wall as part of the chimney that comes up from the living room.

it's such an odd house! the floor boards are really good though which is very pleasing.

interesting thought about the wash basin though!

the partition wall between this room and the next is pretty thick though - a foot or so thick - the tiles go under the wall but they don't come out the other side in the other room.

 

[Feltwell]

the partition wall between this room and the next is pretty thick though - a foot or so thick - the tiles go under the wall but they don't come out the other side in the other room.

A foot??? :shock: That's some partition!! Is it hollow sounding when tapped? If it was built that thick it must have been in order to conceal something or overcome some sort of problem. Is it a new or old partition, any idea?

 

[sorrel_101]

yeah that's what i thought - it must be hiding something.

i got a bit carried away and thought there was a whole room there with dead bodies and stuff but then i got realistic and got the tape measure out and it's about a foot. yep - definitely a hollow sounding partition wall.

can't tell how old the partition is as i can't really pull the wallpaper off (my boyfriend would probably kill me - he already wants me to stop pulling carpet up everywhere but i can't help myself)

i think i migth try to see if i can find the old guy that owned the house before the woman we bought it off. he might know more.

 

[sorrel_101]

i've tried to show where things are on this but it may just confuse matters further.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Great annotated pic, sorry I'm still stumped but there are some very knowledgeable people on this forum who I'm sure will contribute.

Lots of the walls here are well over 1 foot thick - especially if niches/alcoves or cupboards were constructed within. It may be that you'd find something similar if you were to go about removing wallpaper and bashing holes, not that I'm remotedly suggesting you do that!

Your boyfriend may have a point re the carpets, it's very difficult to get them to lie perfectly after you've had them up.

Getting hold of the previous owner sounds like a great idea. But do keep asking questions here too!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh, just seen Joce's post - the washstand is a good idea, but I reckon you'd tile the whole area if you were doing that, and not have the back section like a plain constructional hearth.

Looking again it doesn't seem very likely, I agree.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I think it's most odd that a fireplace would be shoved in a corner next to a window like that anyhow. Aren't they always in the middle of an interior wall? And yet they do look like hearth tiles, in fact they look like they match your downstairs fireplace.

I can only think they've been moved from elsewhere. I wonder if someone has reused those tiles from off a fireplace in the house, and had a sink with a vanity unit in that spot.

What's the material behind the tiles?

 

[sorrel_101]

some kind of concrete/cement type suff - i'm very tempted to hack away at that too but as it's my boyfriends office he wants to get it back usable asap so i don't think that can happen.

these tiles are much nicer than the ones in the living room, but every single one of them is broken quite badly and the cement has got on to half of them.

 

[AMc]

My guess - the partition was built and a stove was installed to heat the new room with either a flue directly up or out through the wall. That would have been cheaper than building a whole new chimney stack for a small fireplace.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I also thought a stove with a flue (before the "partition" was constructed).

I think there is a patch of different brickwork just up and a little left of the arrow in your pic where the non-fireplace is. A flue may have exited here.

It looks to me that the cement stuff is also on top of your tiles, so they may have originally covered the whole piece of floor and been damaged when a wash-basin was removed?

 

[robgil]

surely thats too deep to be a hearth? what is in the room directly below it?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I'm starting to think the putative wash basin may be the clue...

 

[FamilyWiggs]

We've missed the obvious clue!

There's a network socket on the wall.... the Victorian tilers were obviously too lazy to move the Ikea computer desk before laying those floor tiles! :roll: