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We bought a London house built in the 1920s and would like to put the fireplaces back to their original condition, they currently have a cast iron fireplace and metro tiles:
The fireplace chamber is 64"x32" or 90x60 cm which seems too narrow for those victorian style fireplaces with tiles on each side.
I can't find any info online, so I was wondering if they were just open fireplaces?
Had similar in my mums 1890 house.
Yes small open fires designed to be run constantly to warm up fabric of building adjacent to the hearth.
Similar size to yours without the metro tiles.
There maybe parallel chimneys hidden behind the tiles if second floor
The tiles should be ornate, multi coloured hand painted squares, which do appear on eBay or marketplace.
You could open it up and make a Feature out of it. Or pop a gas flame effect burner in there, get a retro log burner styled one for practicality and have the chimney swept
Are you sure the fireplaces and tiles are all original?
The block work is more modern and doesn’t seem line up properly with the metro tiles or overall opening.
We have a 1911 London terraced house with the original fireplaces removed but some metro tile hearths under the carpet. Chimney breasts in front and back rooms would have had larger fireplaces in for show, only smaller fireplaces upstairs for the bedrooms. At a guess ours would have been more like this.
Cast iron Victorian style fires with painted tile diagonal sides might have gone out of fashion at that point, arts and crafts or art deco could have been more common.
Looks to me that the original builders opening has been partially filled with block simply to narrow the opening to fit the smaller castiron fire place. If you want to go bigger again removing the blocks would be simple
I had an art deco house in manchester - the downstairs fireplaces had been removed but the upstairs one were just narrow cast iron with no tiling
@kimura54321 I'm sure they're not, that's why we want to find out how they must have been when original, as @neilnevill mentioned is has been narrowed.
The measures I posted are without the blocks, they are the the measures of the original fireplace chamber. The blocks were added in order to stick the metro tiles, awful job as they didn't even keep it symetric.
@tjagain I haven't been able to find any cast iron fireplaces that fits the chamber, that's why I wonder if it was just an open fireplace?
I think we will just remove the fireplace and leave it open, put some plants or so.
Maybe have a word with some of your neighbours if their houses are of a similar style, see what they have.
@spaniardclimber - That makes more sense now! 😂
Some ideas from this website for 1920-30s styles.
http://edwardian-fireplaces.co.uk/content/hampstead-tiled-fireplace-insert
When our old Baxi back boiler finally dies we will get it and the ugly 80s marble hearth pulled out as well. Likely going to have it blocked up and similar tiles to these Victorian ones laid in a metro pattern instead. Might be worth considering something similar as they are likely a sympathetic match?
https://firetile.co.uk/shop/victorian-wall-tiles/
Have a look on Rightmove at all the sold houses on your street and the one over, one of them will likely have the original fireplaces still in place in the photos
@noshki good point, gonna check with them.
@kimura54321 Thanks, we want to tile the hearth, so will definitely check those tiles.
@5lab great suggestion, I could only find one and they had an open fireplace, it's looks really nice so we will probably go with that.