Chimney Fetish

[Theakerr]

I fear I have become a "chimney counter" as opposed to the well known "rivet counter".  I am currently building the backs of a set of "middle class" row houses with a ginnel in the middle.  Said houses have a two up and two down arrangement and because they are "middle class" would have had a fireplace in each room.   I have spent a significant amount of time trying to figure out where the chimneys for the two lower rooms next to the ginnel  would be located.  As part of my quest I spent a lot of time looking through old model railway books and videos.  What an eye-opener!  The chimney arrangement for many layouts at exhibitions and in the magazines, including "Layouts of the Month" are simply wrong for the pre-war and immediate post war houses modelled.  Based on the position and number of chimneys, many models have unheated rooms, both upstairs and downstairs.  Many row houses, a very common feature on our layouts,  show houses in the middle that apparently have no heating at all, others where both downstairs and upstairs rooms on adjoining wall have no heating and end row houses that have heating at both ends.  And yes I know that sometimes some upstairs bedrooms did not have a fireplace (mine in one house did not) but normally at least one, known today as the Master Bedroom, did.  Many rural "big" brick farm houses only had heating at one end.  Defiantly not the case and based on rural Lincolnshire where there would be a beautiful big fireplace in each room.   Said houses did not have central heating.   

I did solve my problem because a friend at the BRMNA actually lived in a house that matched my criteria.  However, now when I look at pictures of a layout I am drawn to the chimneys or lack there-of on their buildings 

[HLT 0109]

I may be wrong, but I think adjacent rooms within the same dwelling, often shared a chimney once it reached the loft - possibly also one room above another would share its chimney?  I am sure a builder will correct me if I am wrong.

 

Harold.

[28XX]

Photos of WW2 bombed terraces show how chimneys are routed through storeys. Generally for 19th century onward it's one pot to one fireplace. One reason why chimney breasts are so wide is to accommodate the flue from the room(s) below. So many stacks have been lost through modernisation that it's hard to imagine the forest that the rooftops used to be. Once again, period research is necessary, don't build what you think things should look like.

[allan downes]

I fear I have become a "chimney counter" as opposed to the well known "rivet counter".  I am currently building the backs of a set of "middle class" row houses with a ginnel in the middle.  Said houses have a two up and two down arrangement and because they are "middle class" would have had a fireplace in each room.   I have spent a significant amount of time trying to figure out where the chimneys for the two lower rooms next to the ginnel  would be located.  As part of my quest I spent a lot of time looking through old model railway books and videos.  What an eye-opener!  The chimney arrangement for many layouts at exhibitions and in the magazines, including "Layouts of the Month" are simply wrong for the pre-war and immediate post war houses modelled.  Based on the position and number of chimneys, many models have unheated rooms, both upstairs and downstairs.  Many row houses, a very common feature on our layouts,  show houses in the middle that apparently have no heating at all, others where both downstairs and upstairs rooms on adjoining wall have no heating and end row houses that have heating at both ends.  And yes I know that sometimes some upstairs bedrooms did not have a fireplace (mine in one house did not) but normally at least one, known today as the Master Bedroom, did.  Many rural "big" brick farm houses only had heating at one end.  Defiantly not the case and based on rural Lincolnshire where there would be a beautiful big fireplace in each room.   Said houses did not have central heating.   

I did solve my problem because a friend at the BRMNA actually lived in a house that matched my criteria.  However, now when I look at pictures of a layout I am drawn to the chimneys or lack there-of on their buildings 

 

Most interestin post.. Well I can't ever be accused of having a 'Chimney Fetish' because I've never really given them any thought and have always just stuck 'em where they look good !

 

Promise I'll try harder next time.

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.

[BG John]

This is my mid 19th century house in West Wales, taken in November 1967 when it was being vandalised by the new owner. The left hand part is a typical local two up, two down double fronted house, and the right part was originally a weavers workshop for the local woollen industry, and later converted to a house, possibly in the early 1900s.

 

 

The left chimney has a big fireplace in what was originally the kitchen, and I suspect there may be one upstairs, but I haven't removed the plasterboard yet. The middle one has at least three fireplaces, upstairs and downstairs in the original house, and upstairs in the former workshop. I don't know if there's a fourth downstairs, but I doubt it. The one on the right has a fireplace downstairs. Upstairs, floorboards seem to have replaced a slate hearth, but there's no sign of a fireplace in the lime plastered wall, although I wonder if I may find a long blocked up one when I eventually take the crumbling lime off.

 

The chimney at the back must have been on an extension that was demolished to make way for the current extension, that has a different chimney. I know the extension was there because when I opened up the original doorway, that had been replaced by a new one, there was wallpaper still on the walls!

 

This is what I think many local people thought was quite a modern house until I took the render off outside. Who knows what's gone on in vast numbers of houses across the UK, with fireplaces being built, blocked up and added, and chimneys being built, knocked down, rebuilt etc.