Anyone got house where chimney breast has been removed? (Why? why? why?)

[Tinker]

What do you do about a focal point instead of a fireplace? Would a word-burner be doable?

A huge great big fish tank would be a great focal point...

Yes, it's been removed from our house.

We make do with a TV

You can do a wood burner and make a mock sort of hearth from big slate tiles and then pit a chunky reclaimed type wooden shelf above it In our old house i had a brickie build a brick chimney place with a hole in the wall type gap(on a flat wall)and had an eco gel fire in it V effective and helped sell the house I think

What's a word burner?

We've got a electric imitation woodburner atm or you could have a living flame with a flue if it is an outside wall. The house we hope to buy has a lovely Victorian style fireplace but was built with no actual chimney, just a mock chimney breast - why ?!

Should be chimney above still (go via bedroom above)

The reason why chimney breasts are often removed is if they make the room above impossibly small. I know my parents removed one of the chimney breasts in my childhood home because my room was then doubled in size as a result...

They took out the chimney breast downstairs and left in the one above????

You have had a surveyor check it is structurally ok ?

We have got a hanging chimney breast in the loft (ground and first floor ones removed by previous owner). It is OK. Even the surveyor when we bought the house said it wasnt urgent. As far as I remember, he just recommended putting in a couple of brackets for extra support.

The closest we have to a focal point is the tv. I miss having a mantel-piece. There is nowhere to put ornaments, cards etc.

Structural issues (if are any) in hand, don't worry.

we have a tiny fireplace but it's covered over (and sometime small birds get trapped in it!) i know what you mean about a focal point we display pictures and things on a bookcase! but we live in a boring boxy 60s house

When we bought our house someone had removed the ground floor chimney breast (but not first floor or loft) and built a 'fake' one - it was structurally unsound (not picked up on survey but by dh with a hammer drill) so had to be removed.
We put a real chimney breast back in - with a reclaimed victorian fireplace and hearth. Was pricey but so worth it in the end. We will be having our first Christmas with a real fire burning in the grate this year.

Bluebear - any idea of cost of putting a proper one back in? Thanks

Dh removed the unsafe chimney breast..then we paid, I think, 1.5k to have a chimney specialist come and 'make' a chimney (they sort of make a funnel shape out of wire net, block out most of the chimneybreast area with concrete blocks then pour in fire retardant stuff in the gap (lots of technical terms there I know..memory is a bit hazy).
Then we paid another 1.5k for a restored victorian fireplace plus a new granite hearth (you have to tell them you want a real fire rather than gas flame effect as the granite needs to have expansion gaps cut into it for a real fire).
Then we had to have the chimney breast plastered - but we had loads of plastering work done at the same time so not sure of cost, prob less than 500.
We also had to have a chimney sweep come and check and clean the original bits of chimney, and the chimney specialists did a smoke test to check the chimney too - if it had any leaks they recommended a metal liner which they drop down from the top of the chimney - luckily ours didn't need it.
We got the name of the chimney builder from a fireplace shop when we chose the fireplace...Are you in London? I can see if we still have the details somewhere (might take a while).

we removed our fireplace in the lounge because the room is long but narrow and we were only able to place furniture in one position. It is much better now

Oh that doesn't sound too bad bluebear, thanks. I'm not in London though, but thanks anyway.

Should add, the "why, why why?" was me lamenting at why had our vendors removed the fireplace in what is to be our house. I do understand why they get removed in smaller rooms.

Hope you can sort it out, Tinks. At least bb has shown that it can be done.