Fire surround: original or not?

[BenFriman]

Could I have some opinions on this please? I've put links to photos at the bottom so you can see what I'm talking about.

One day, I'm going to get round to redecorating our informal sitting room. This is a room towards the back of our Georgian house which might originally have been a kitchen - or might not!. It has been attacked by the modernisers in the '60s and, while they thankfully left the large built-in pine dresser intact, it's hard to tell how this room would have looked and what it would have been used for.

My question is about the fire surround. My feeling is that it is not original because:
1. It is fixed on to the surface of the wall (fixings visible) and the wall has been rendered with concrete! So if it is original it has at least been taken out and put back.
2. It is crudely made. True, the whole building is crude if you look closely, but this seems out of character to me.
3. The chimney breast is bloated - it narrows down to a normal chimney breast on the floor above, so I wondered if there would have been a large range cooker here originally.

Lastly, if you don't think it's original, can anyone point me at a type of fire surround which would be in keeping. We do want to keep the modern gas fire.

Here are the photos I have uploaded:

View of the chimney breast:

Detail of the fire surround:

To put it in perspective this is the house

(did I get those tags right? Judging by the preview I didn't, but i'm sure you're clever enuf to extract the urls.)

 

[charlie-ia]

nope, didnt work sorry. how about getting rid of that last " / "?

 

[BenFriman]

hmmm... the trailing slash doesn't seem to make any difference.

Don't include the

though. I don't see why this forum software makes tags available if it doesn't process them!

Here are those URLs again as plain text:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7848886@N02/462669738/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7848886@N02/462669736/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7848886@N02/462669734/

Do let me know if it still doesn't work!

 

[charlie-ia]

worked that time!
i only just worked out them img things this week. theyre for putting small pictures directly onto this page.

just a plain link to another page, you do what youve done this time.(does that make any sense at all?)

i dont have anything useful to say about your fireplace though, sorry.
did you find out why your breasts are different sizes?
(chimney breasts!!:lol

 

[MdB]

The reason the tags didn't work was because you were linking to a HTML page rather than to an actual image. The link needs to end in .jpg or .gif. I don't think flickr likes deep linking so the following may not work:

Can't comment on the surround though sorry.

[img]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/187/462669738_665f10ee4a.jpg

 

[alice]

Strictly my opinion, but it doesn't look at all original to me. Those mantel supports (corbels?) are WAY out of proportion to the mantel shelf...and even if you place them about 1890-1910 Late Art's and Crafts style...the wood type, detailing, fit and finish aren't consistent with the period.

What kind of nails/dowels/fastners are used? That will date the the surround.

Looks very 1970's DIY, to me.

alice

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Modern lash-up, and not a particularly good one.

 

[Nemesis]

Yup - nothing very period property there.

The chimney breast is wide as originally it was probably the kitchen (with the dresser) and it's where the cooking was done, on a simple range. Above that the flue will narrow for a smaller bedroom chimneypiece.

 

[BenFriman]

Yes, I'd agree it's probably a 1970s job. Probably at the time the first gas fire was installed. The thing that made me have my doubts was that the timber looks aged - it's certainly been chemically stripped (as a number of other things in the house). So I guess it's a crude fire surround from a completely different style of house. I know that the last two owners were keen on using reclaimed items... whether or not they suited the style of the house.

But, I wonder what the original would have looked like and what would be a sensible replacement for it?

 

[Nemesis]

Originally - looking at the house, a simple Georgian cooking grate. Over the years it might have been updated with Victorian ranges etc. There will be a very large space behind what's there now, with infill to make what's there now fit.

The one there now was possibly made up from reclaimed timber which was something else entirely.

 

[alice]

Figuring out an appropriate genre/period is a problem, isn't it, even before you get into specifics of style. That's exactly the sort of thing I'm trying to figure out about my house.

You have three choices....

1- Buy whatever you like.
2- Set a date (build date or any date after the house was built) and stick with the styles a person of that time and period would have access to.
3- Realize that style mutates and changes and a period house can have many different styles added on over the years.

Personally, I'm picking a range of 10-15 years after my house was built and using those as my guide.

Once you pick a date range, then looking up what's available and appropriate is easier, I think.

alice

 

[Nemesis]

Well, the modern tile infill and gas fire will make anything period style pretty hard to install really.

If the fire stays personally I'd re-tile in a plain tile and put a very simple surround and shelf, with simple Geo proportions.

 

[Penners]

I think any Georgian joiner would have been ashamed of that. A clumsy PBD* DIY job, if you ask me.



*post Black & Decker

 

[BenFriman]

Thanks, peoples. That has told me pretty much what I wanted to hear. Now it's time for a chat with the CO.

 

[Penners]

You might help your case if you are able to show your CO that the fire surround was put in after the building was listed.

You've got a rough estimate of its date from others in this thread. Do you know your listing date?

 

[arl]

have a look at the floor and the skirting boards. If the new fireplace was smaller than the original you might be able to see areas which have been changed or replaced to accmodate a smaller opening and hearth.

 

[BenFriman]

No idea of the listing date. How do I find out?

 

[Nemesis]

http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/

 

[BenFriman]

Thanks. The listing date was 1952. That poses a bit of a problem because I guess that the wholesale desecration of this room was done illegally since then (Concrete render on the walls, some architrave where there should be a picture rail, bevelled planks for skirtings, plasterboard ceiling). So now I'm wondering whether I should talk to the CO about this room at all!