Fireplaces
Fireplaces are among the most altered features in old buildings. Openings have been blocked, chimneypieces removed and sold, and hearths lost under later floors. The suppliers and specialists in this category deal in antique chimneypieces, make accurate reproductions in stone, marble, timber and cast iron, restore grates and register plates, and reinstate openings that were closed up. Getting the period, material and proportion right matters more than the individual object: a good Georgian surround in a room of the wrong date reads as an error, and a fireplace opened up without attention to the flue is a safety problem.
What this category covers
- Antique chimneypieces in marble, stone, timber and cast iron
- Accurate reproductions matched to period and room proportion
- Restoration of grates, register plates, hobs and firebacks
- Reinstating blocked openings, hearths and surrounds
- Advice on flue condition, lining and hearth requirements
Chimella The Chimney Umbrella
Chimella Ltd makes the Chimella chimney umbrella, a removable draught excluder for ...
English Fireplaces
English Fireplaces designs, makes and installs fireplace surrounds from its headquarters at ...
Ernest Barnes Limited
Ernest Barnes Ltd is an award-winning heritage brickwork company in Windsor with ...
Eurostove Ltd
Eurostove Ltd is a Somerset-based distributor of wood-burning, multi-fuel, inset and freestanding ...
Inglenook Restoration
Inglenook Restoration has more than twenty years’ experience fully restoring period fireplaces, ...
JH Building Restoration Ltd
JH Building Restoration Ltd is a heritage restoration and refurbishment contractor based ...
John Ford Inglenook Restorations
John Ford Inglenook Restorations is a family business established in the early ...
Organic By Design
Organic By Design is a heritage building maintenance and repair contractor based ...
Choosing and reinstating a period fireplace
Start with the room, not the catalogue. Date, storey and status all governed what a room originally had, and a principal-floor drawing room and a second-floor bedroom in the same house would never have carried the same chimneypiece. Photographs of surviving fireplaces elsewhere in the building are the best guide.
Look for the evidence before ordering. Blocked openings usually leave scars: a bressummer or arch behind the plaster, a hearth stone under the floor, fixing holes and paint lines on the wall. These give the original opening size and often the surround footprint.
Deal with the flue as part of the job. An opening that has been closed for decades may have a decayed or unlined flue, a collapsed pot or a nesting bird. Have it swept and inspected, and check hearth construction and constructional hearth depth, before it is used.
Remember that chimneypieces are usually listed with the building. Removing, replacing or altering one in a listed building normally needs Listed Building Consent, and selling on original features can amount to an offence. Reinstatement is generally welcomed, provided it is honest about what is old and what is new.
Questions to ask
Can I remove an original fireplace from a listed building?
Not without Listed Building Consent. Chimneypieces are treated as part of the listed fabric, and unauthorised removal is an offence. Consent is more likely where a later insertion is being replaced with something appropriate to the room.
How do I find out what fireplace the room originally had?
Physical evidence usually survives: the size of the blocked opening, the hearth stone, paint lines, fixing holes and any scarring on the chimney breast. Comparable rooms in the same building, and houses of the same date and status locally, fill in the rest.
Is an antique chimneypiece better than a reproduction?
Neither is automatically right. An antique of the correct date, material and scale is ideal, but a well-made reproduction is better than an antique of the wrong period, and reproductions avoid the risk of buying a piece removed illegally from another building.
All 11 businesses listed under Fireplaces
- Chimella The Chimney Umbrella Greater London
- English Fireplaces Hampshire
- Ernest Barnes Limited Berkshire
- Eurostove Ltd Somerset
- Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps South Yorkshire
- Inglenook Restoration Surrey
- J P Ladell Suffolk
- JH Building Restoration Ltd Cambridgeshire
- John Ford Inglenook Restorations Hampshire
- M. Axell Stone Restoration Ltd Kent
- Organic By Design Cambridgeshire
Directory information is provided to help visitors identify potentially relevant specialists and suppliers. Inclusion does not constitute a recommendation, approval or guarantee by Tuscan Foundry Products. Please check current services, credentials, availability and suitability directly with each business.