Is this an original feature? Victorian house

[MargotMoo]

Hi all, help appreciated. Please ignore the mess and colour samples! Is this fireplace an original feature and does anyone know any more about it? House built 1890s.

Looks original to me - had similar in victorian and edwardian houses - dont take it out!

I’d say it’s original. Would look great stripped back

As others have said if it's metal it's the original. We had to remove one from our house and I sold it on ebay for an excess of £200 (collection only obviously)

If it's metal it's likely to be.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

If its wood then no, but if its metal then possibly. I'd get it stripped and redone in black (if metal) and keep it.

Ours are wood and all totally original- see the photos above I have 17 of them! All different and 1900 was an odd time Next door and most of the street have the same- all totally original,

@Wotagain

As others have said if it's metal it's the original. We had to remove one from our house and I sold it on ebay for an excess of £200 (collection only obviously)

Wood is also totally original for 1890.

Thanks everyone- very helpful. We’ve decided to have a go at stripping off all of the paint layers and seeing how it looks polished up. It’s definitely metal, we chipped some paint off. I’d rather keep it in if we can make it look nicer, although might have to balance the off centre side with a nice tall plant!

It's a plain in the arse but so worth it to restore them.

Ours is off centre in the living room, and off centre to the other side in the bedroom above. Similar bolt on the side, definitely originals in our case. We had to remove one from another bedroom and it sighed a fucking ton.

Not sure about the fire place but you are going to have sand your paint swatches off if you don't want them showing through.

@TheHoptimist, I pity the poor housemaid whose job it was to clean out all those grates in the morning and then set a fresh fire in each of them.

@Daftasabroom

Not sure about the fire place but you are going to have sand your paint swatches off if you don't want them showing through.

For that reason I would choose the darkest colour

It will look miles better when black

It looks identical to the black metal ones we have in our turn of the century terrace.

I'd strip all the paint off it before getting rid of! I suspect it is early Victorian. Do you know the date your house was built? Early Victorian still had design influences of the Georgian period.

@Seeline

I don't think so. Surely an original would have been located centrally within the chimney breast?

Upstairs chimneys are generally off-centre as they share ‘innards’ in Victorian terraces- The ironwork might be original but unlikely. Most things were stripped in the 30s+

[quote absolutelynotfabulous]nostalgia-uk.com/fireplace-surrounds/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAuvOPBhDXARIsAKzLQ8GGhF0nGzFZrjEVvdFktvQfe05ogV79WtSb0Y1IrCjnUPTshX3LJH8aAl4zEALw_wcB[/quote]

Nostalgia have the biggest collection of reclaimed fireplaces in the UK! And they're lovely - I bought fireplaces from them about 10 years ago...

It looks original to me.

If you want it central, it wouldn't be a massive job to have a false side put on the chimney breast to even it out - it would just need a wooden frame, some plasterboard and a skim of plaster.

No idea but I love the paint swatch on the bottom right corner

I also think it might be. The paint job I think is misleading folks as it looks shit.