Original features or bigger room?

[buckingfrolicks]

I am in my new home 1900, which has original fireplaces in two bedrooms and both downstairs reception rooms

In the bedrooms the fireplaces are tiny and unusable as I don't have a maid of all work and are are built across one corner of the room making the rooms smaller and not rectangular at one corner.

They are both brick - not unattractive but not lovely either. Both are currently "sealed" with loads of paper stuffed up the chimney.

Would you take them out to have more space (rooms are average sizes but awkward to put furniture in) or honour the age and history of the house?

Also the house has traditional internal latch doors. I'll fitting and rattelly but appropriate for the house. Replace or keep??

Do the bedroom fireplaces share the same chimneys as the reception room ones? If so, you won't be able to remove those fireplaces and square the rooms off without affecting the chimneys for the fireplaces downstairs.

wow good point. I think they probably do. That's that decision made!!

Also the brick fireplace is probably not original, our last house (1902) had brick fireplaces downstairs and neither were original they were late 20's early 30's modernisations  you may be able to reduce the size and so the area they take up by replacing with cast iron original bedroom fireplaces

Keep keep keep!
Not just for the original features (which I would love) but also for the structural stability of the house. People are so keen to take chimney breasts out, but don't realise they have a functional effect in bracing the building. However good your structural engineer, I still feel you're better to have a relatively unaltered house as far as possible - as it's often with alterations and changes that unforeseen structural issues arise in the future.