Keeping abreast of the chimney breast: space-wasting historical artefact or fireplace fundamental? And if you don’t have one, do you need one?
You've got a house with no chimney and are planning to install a stove with a twinwall flue. But do you want a chimney breast too?
Chimney breasts are a defining feature in English architectural vernacular. Most British stoves look the way they do - generally square and low-profile - because they were designed to fit the confines of a fireplace positioned within a chimney breast. As a result, they can sometimes look lost and diminished when installed outside of one.
This was less of an issue in the old days when ninety percent of the stoves we installed were being retro-fitted into fireplaces that had historically been open fires or gas fires, with flexible-lined flues dropped into their brick chimneys. Free-standing twinwall flue installations used to be the exception.
Nowadays, the proportions have almost flipped, with the majority of stoves we install going into houses that don't have a pre-existing chimney. This throws open a whole host of possibilities in terms of stove design: taller, wider, with convection panels, with plinths or benches and even ovens on top. This is design territory that the Nordics have been mining ever since they started making stoves in the mid-nineteenth century, and the popular minimalist look – hearth, stove and flue pipe – has inspired a quiet revolution not only in British stove design, but has also subtly expanded the ways we consider a stove can visually fit into a room.
However, something is also lost when the chimney breast is relegated to historical anachronism. Quite apart from the decorative possibilities, you gain, with a chimney breast, a structure on which to hang things: a beam, shelf or mantel for Christmas cards or family photos; a wall on which to mount a framed picture or even a television above the stove; shelves to the side to be stocked with your favourite books or collection of carved elephants; jambs to fix a club fender to if you like that sort of thing (we do!).
Not to mention the sense of inhabiting a familiar architecture that draws on the comfort of tradition and a folk memory of how a fireplace ought to look.
It always seems a small violence in the trade when we call it a ‘false’ chimney breast because the only thing fake about it is that it has no structural function in supporting a masonry chimney. In every other respect, it’s very real and serves clearly functional and decorative purposes. It might behove us to choose less damning language. Bespoke chimney breasts, anyone?
We can build chimney breasts in either traditional or more modern idioms, using a variety of materials, many of which are showcased in our showroom. There are no brick chimneys in our showroom so all seven of our showcase chimney breast/fireplaces are bespoke, with different combinations of beams, chambers, hearths, surrounds, and, of course, stoves.
And here are some pics of a recent installation we undertook near Southampton, where we built in a recess for a television and shelving between the breast and adjacent wall.
So if you’re considering putting in a stove, don’t have a chimney but would nonetheless love to have a traditional chimney breast, just drop us a line or pop into the shop on Silver Street in Hordle to have a look at the options.
Alternatively, complete the form below, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
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