Is a wall mounted TV over a gas fireplace a non-starter?

[BlueberryMacaron]

I’ve been thinking of ways that I can optimise space in the living room and one idea I’ve had is mounting the TV on the wall, and using the alcove where the TV currently is as a bookshelf (where we could also keep any attachments to the TV). The problem is that the only wall this would work for has a gas fire. I saw a Tightmove advert where this was done, but I’ve read various bits and pieces on Google saying it won’t work. Does anyone have any experience of this, either doing it or starting it and realising that it just wouldn’t work?

We're just bumping this in case anyone's around to answer the OP.

We are looking at doing this just now! Why would it not work? Is the gas fire built into the wall / is there a fireplace?

I would worry the heat would damage the tv, though gas fires aren’t as hot as solid fuel fires.

If it’s a traditional fireplace then usually having a tv above it would be way too high and uncomfortable to look at from a sofa.

Worried about heat damaging the TV. The gas fireplace is built into the wall, so would also need to check with someone whether pipes/wires would prohibit it, but no point in starting that process if the heat would make it a total no no.

If its a modern flue pipe, (rather than a chimney for an open fire which has been reporposed for a gas fire) you need to be very careful about drilling into the wall, as those flue pipes are easy to crack or otherwise damage.

I'd always thought it shouldn't be done - having said that, mine is an open working fireplace.

Does the wall get hot when the fire is alight?
Is the fireplace flush to the chimney breast? If heat is rising in a similar fashion to a radiator is there a mantelpiece or similar to divert that heat out to the room?

Unless there are pipes fitted close to the surface of the chimney breast I'm not sure there would be any insurmountable issues.