Drawing of alterations to an existing house for a private client in Kingsley, Hampshire by Stedman Blower (2003) by Stedman BlowerThe Blower Foundation
The Chimney
It is astonishing to think that something so ubiquitous as a chimney was invented, by someone, somewhere once. It is to home and hearth what the wheel is to transport and trade.
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The chimney evolved over hundreds of years to meet a functional need for heat and food preparation. This went hand in hand with evolving a design that was fireproof and efficient.
Brick
Lacking readily available stone in England, most housing for anyone other than the elites was built out of readily available timber and with unfired earth wet laid over woven wood.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, probably introduced from the Low Countries, a timber frame tradition rapidly took hold. This era is called the 'Great Rebuilding of England', when a new class of settled smallholders and merchants had houses built using pre-fabricated oak frames. At first these had open holes in the roof and food and heat was provided by an open fire beneath. All of a sudden, with increased circulation of money, brick became widely available, with essential properties.
Fired at high temperature, they were durable, easy to lay, were fireproof and once heated, acted as a store of heat right through the night, relit daily and preserving a warm home all winter. These chimneys started out very large, enough to cook on and even sit in.
The chimney evolves
In time, as timber became harder to come by and with the advent of the canals and waterways, materials could be moved larger distances and a veritable industry of brick manufacturies saw the material dominate the construction industry.
The Princess Royal Public House, Runfold, Surrey for Messrs Courage & Co. Ltd. (1932) by Falkner, H & Aylwin, GThe Blower Foundation
Fireplaces
After the Great Fire of London in 1666, timber use was restricted. By the Georgian period (18th century), most houses featured fireplaces with hoods, flues, and pots, improving airflow, heat retention, and fuel efficiency.
Technology
Chimneys had started out as functional structures, but quickly became adorned with ornament and decorative detailing. They became more architecturally important as a structure in the Georgian period, not just how they looked on the roof.
Chimney as ornament
In the Classical tradition, with symmetry an essential characteristic, the chimney becomes a significant part of the play between horizontal and vertical planes, such an important aspect of Classical composition.
The interiors of the 18th century home also received much greater attention and the hearth was essential to layout the interior spaces, and with coal now becoming widely available, hearths could be smaller and placed in each room. This also required chimneys to be grouped as they stacked over multiple floors, sometimes as many as up to a dozen or more.
The chimney started out as a prosaic afterthought to the mediaeval house, changed construction for the good and met an essential need for comfort and sustenance for centuries. It was a truly revolutionary invention. But, in the 21st century, they have now in essence become redundant, even discredited, as modern fuels make them entirely a matter of choice and not always a responsible one. Yet, somehow a house isn't a real house without one.
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