Just coming to the final edit on my wip, and I realise that the layout of the house isn't altogether logical. My main problem, I think, is that I have an open fireplace situated on an internal wall. Is it fair to say that in all cases, where Victorian houses of 1860 onwards are concerned, that the fireplaces are situated on an external wall? I think it may be, which means I'll have to change my positioning.

Is it fair to say that in all cases, where Victorian houses of 1860 onwards are concerned, that the fireplaces are situated on an external wall?

No, not at all - my Victorian semi is 1875 or thereabouts, and it's your classic layout: the sitting room and dining room, and the bedroom above each, in the front half have fireplaces on the outside wall. But the rooms in the "back extension" which isn't an extension but part of the house - kitchen, and two floors above it - have fireplaces on the party wall with next door.

This layout of this house is just like mine, without the top floor of bedrooms of the main house:

http://www.felixstowepropertynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Floorplan-5-bedroom-semi-detached-house-for-sale-in-Trimley-St-Mary-Felixstowe-IP11.png

And they could have put the fireplaces in the back bit on an external wall - there's plenty of it - but they chose not to. So I reckon you can do what you like.

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Meant to say - the party wall is the long one, on the entrance-hall side - and the kitchen and back bedroom fireplaces are on that wall.

Thanks Emma. This isn't even on a party wall, so I think I'm defo going to have to change the layout.

I used to live in a classic Victorian terrace and all the fireplaces were on internal walls.

Terraces or semis they are usually on the party walls (backing onto a matching stack with the neighbours'

Detached houses they are usually back-to-back down the middle of the house. In a typical four-up-four-down detached that means two chimney stacks, one up the middle of the right hand pairs of rooms, one up the middle of the left-hand pairs of rooms.

So yes - absolutely possible to have them on internal walls (they do however have to be in brick load-bearing walls. It would be very rare/unlikely to have a stack in a lathe-and-plaster wall in a Victorian house.)

Only rarely are they on external walls but it's not impossible.

In tudor houses you can have them in the middle of a room if you want!

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that winky was not intentional!

Thanks Saturday and Florapost. Unfortunately, I don't think I can get away with having the fireplace on an internal wall. It's not a double fronted property, and therefore wouldn't be brick load-bearing wall. C'est la vie. These things are sent to test us.

Only rarely are they on external walls but it's not impossible.

Oh, I wouldn't say only rarely - my semi has (or had) four on external walls (two above two) and three on party walls (one above the other), same in my identical previous house, and all the way down my very long mixed Victorian and Edwardian road of mostly semis.

Lorraine, I have also seen them in little rooms - one of a run along a corridor so it only has one external wall, say - where it's across the corner just as you go in the door, ISYWIM.

Hi Lorraine

Just checked with hubby who's an Architect. The fireplace can be on an internal wall.

It's not a double fronted property, and therefore wouldn't be brick load-bearing wall. C'est la vie. These things are sent to test us.

Some houses of this period had brick internal walls as well, with fireplaces serving the living room to the front, and the dining room to the rear, with the kitchen extending onto the garden. The fireplace can be located in the wall that divides the living/dining rooms.