The tiled fireplace in the bedroom was probably an original (1930’s) fixture, and frankly, I felt it had had its day. The modern central heating system meant that I no longer required a fire in this room. While no doubt something of Birmingham’s twentieth century architecture is worth preserving, I decided this ceramic-clad monolith would spend the twenty-first century under the footings of my new extension.
Prizing the fireplace away from the wall was easier than I had expected. Beneath the shell of ceramic tiles, the fireplace was composed of a single slab of cast concrete. Embedded into the back face of this slab were two iron rings, one on each side of the opening. Two corresponding iron anchor rings, were embedded in the structural brickwork forming the sides of the chimney opening. These four rings allowed the fireplace to be secured to the wall by means of two lengths of strong wire. Once the wire had been cut, the fireplace was lifted away from the wall (picture left).
At this point I was disappointed to find that the front edges of the firebrick fireback protruded into the room beyond the level of the plaster on the adjacent wall.
Oh-dear, the fireback had to come out!
It quickly became apparent that the brickwork supported by the fireback was cosmetic as opposed to structural. Perhaps not surprising then that when I removed the fireback the soft lime mortar allowed this rather shoddy brick patchwork to fall away from the rest of the chimney, leaving me with opening seen in the picture (right).