Removing fireplace?

[catsareevil]

I have an old townhouse, and in my kitchen there is a fairly large fireplace. It takes up a lot of space, and so as a result I cant get as much use of the space in my kitchen as I would like to. The fireplace is tiled, including a large tiled mantlepiece.

I know that it is generally a bad idea to remove chimney breasts, so would not think of doing that, but wondered if it would possibly be OK to remove the tiling, including the mantlepiece so that I could then plaster over to create a usable wall? Or is the mantelpiece likely to be structurally important?

If the mantel sticks forward from the wall, you might be able to make it smaller. But assuming there is a great big chimney above, it is v hard to remove the whole thing. We put shelves in ours and use it for storage.

It does stick out from the wall. I was thinking that if I could knock all that off, and plaster over, them I would still have the it where the wall sticks out for the chimney breast (as I wouldnt try to remove the chimney for fear of house collapsing ).

So knocking back the mantel could potentially be OK?

We've taken out fireplace surrounds before - very messy and dusty and very time consuming.
Are you removing the tiled fire surround (incl mantelpiece) that stands proud of the chimney breast?
It sounds as though it's quite big - and the surrounds sometimes come as one unit - reinforced concrete with tiles on top - or tiled cast iron.
There will be lots of rubble and mess and lots of deep plastering afterwards - wouldn't recommend unless you're very good at that.

Yes you could take fireplace and mantel out and it would free up lots of space.
One way to get round all the making good woudl be to create full height doors to go right across the front and make the space into a mini walk-in larder, if that makes sense?
Or you could put a range cooker in the gap which is what people often do with a disused chimney breast.

Thanks. My cooker is in there are the moment, which I suppose is better than nothing, but it still feels like a lot of wasted space (as there is about 1 foot empty space either side of the cooker). Maybe I should buy a bigger cooker and then I wouldnt be wasting as much space .

A bigger cooker would cost less than altering the surround, or you could have small pull units made to fill the gap, which you could use to store cooking oil/spices etc.
How wide is the opening?

Something like this looks good IMO
<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=cooker+in+chimney+breast&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=622&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnsfd&tbnid=AgfOWmhqo5EGpM:&imgrefurl=www.trendey.com/tag/range-cooker&docid=R4vJczCRETeuXM&imgurl=www.trendey.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/600_DSC03839.jpg&w=600&h=916&ei=nZL7Tve-MoiLhQfV79jUAQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=199&sig=113720298373310220952&page=4&tbnh=128&tbnw=85&start=62&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:62&tx=12&ty=84" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=cooker+in+chimney+breast&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=622&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnsfd&tbnid=AgfOWmhqo5EGpM:&imgrefurl=www.trendey.com/tag/range-cooker&docid=R4vJczCRETeuXM&imgurl=www.trendey.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/600_DSC03839.jpg&w=600&h=916&ei=nZL7Tve-MoiLhQfV79jUAQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=199&sig=113720298373310220952&page=4&tbnh=128&tbnw=85&start=62&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:62&tx=12&ty=84

my god that link looks long!

Thaks for that link, that looks great. It would allow us to use the space around the cooker without needing to damage the fireplace (which I dont much like, but I would feel guilty for smashing up something original. Brilliant