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I have a mid-60s house in the UK, at the front of the property at spanning DPC level there's a small metal cover (approx. dimensions are 1 brick wide and two bricks tall). None of the neighbours seem to know what it is for, and I can't remove it to see what it is covering.

Does anyone know what it might be from your previous experience. All the houses have it. All the houses had traditional flue chimneys that could take a coal fire, so maybe it's something to do with that, but I am not sure. Its on the outside wall of the front room that contained the fireplace (chimney and fireplace are long since removed; there were no signs of a channel going in that direction when it was removed)

There are no markings on it, it feels like it might be iron, I can't see any fixings, and it doesn't budge (by hand - I am nervous of encouraging it with something heavier until I know what it might be).

The floors inside are poured concrete, so I don't think it's an airway; there're no other air bricks or anything like that on the property

Edit for additional clarity: The house is link detached, where the garage of one house shares the ground floor wall of the next house, and so on. The item pictured is not attached to the same wall as where the chimney and fireplace were, and is positioned underneath a window around 3 meters diagonally away on an adjacent wall. The fireplace was on the same wall that joined the neighbours garage. This is on the front wall of the house, with nothing on the opposing wall of the house (some suggestions it may be a tie plate, but I don't think its one of those)

Appreciate any wisdom you might be able to throw at it!

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Steve Melnikoff
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Max
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    I'm thinking some sort of clean-out for the long-gone fireplace. But it's just a wild guess. – brhans Oct 19 '23 at 11:55
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    Some old homes in the US had doors similar that opened to coal chutes. Allowed coal to be delivered into basements for furnaces. – RMDman Oct 19 '23 at 11:56
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    @RMDman - a coal chute would be bigger - something a shovel would fit into. Fireplace ash cleanout (outside so you don't make a mess) is much likelier. – Jon Custer Oct 19 '23 at 12:38
  • Yeah, it was just a thought. I was trying to imagine the dimensions compared to a"brick"...guess it depends on how big the brick is. – RMDman Oct 19 '23 at 13:02
  • Thanks for all the suggestions :) I think it might not have been a clearcut, as it's on an adjacent wall, about 3 meters diagonally from where the fireplace used to be. Maybe it had something to do with airflow, but all the houses have the same solid cover, and most still have a fireplace. Mine was only removed recently and as far as I know from talking to older neighbours, the plate was always in place. – Max Oct 19 '23 at 13:22
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    @Max edit that info into your question, don't bury it in the comments. – FreeMan Oct 19 '23 at 13:54
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    Have you asked your local planning/building guys? If anyone would know, it's them. – Tim Oct 19 '23 at 14:03
  • Coal chutes tended to be horizontal, larger & circular often in front of the front door step, so the coalman could just tip sacks straight down. The cellar extends under the front path a couple of yards at the part of the house. We had ours sealed just last year so I can't get a photo any more. I'd be tempted to ask - does it come out? If so, what's behind it? Is that actually a handle? – Tetsujin Oct 19 '23 at 16:02
  • Thanks for the suggestion @Tim I'd asked a few builders but they drew a blank.As for our local planning team, it's a good shout, though they can be difficult to get hold of from previous experience of submitting for planning permission! – Max Oct 19 '23 at 16:35
  • Judging by the too-fat mortar to the right, and the off-color brick to the left, this doesn't seem to be original to the house. not sure if that clue helps... – dandavis Oct 19 '23 at 20:16
  • The bricks are standard UK size: 9 long x 4.5 wide x 3 high (in inches). – Paul_Pedant Oct 19 '23 at 23:29
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    Old neighbors and planning people are good suggestions, but I'd ask a mason first. – Mike Oct 20 '23 at 01:19
  • I have no evidence for this, and it doesn't look the same, but I wonder if it might be a covering a junction box for a cable-TV-like service, similar to [this one](https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/09/opening-a-rediffusion-junction-box/)? – psmears Oct 20 '23 at 13:55
  • Is the lump in the middle a handle? – MikeB Oct 20 '23 at 15:04
  • I wondered as much @psmears, but it lacks any (apparent) method to remove/open it. As I mentioned originally I've not had any luck trying to get any movement out of it, but I may have a more robust attempt this weekend if the weather clears up (constant heavy rain at the moment, so I am nervous about breaking it off and then leaving a gaping hole exposed to the rain! – Max Oct 20 '23 at 20:13
  • @MikeB it looked as though it should be a handle to me as well, but I don't see any hinges around the edges and it doesn't shift in any direction. May have a more robust attempt at moving it when the rain clears – Max Oct 20 '23 at 20:14
  • @psmears From the appearance, I would say that this item is far older than any cable-tv service in the UK, especially if it dates to the building of the house, rather than being a later addition. – MikeB Oct 23 '23 at 08:49
  • @MikeB: According to the question, the house is from the mid-1960s. Cable TV-like services were available in the UK [starting from the 1930s](http://www.rediffusion.info/), so the dates do check out :) – psmears Oct 23 '23 at 09:48

3 Answers3

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I'm with brhans - I think it was a clean out for the fireplace. We had something very similar on the house I grew up in (USA) on the wall outside the fireplace.

You might want to contact the local historical society to see if they've got any documentation on the houses when they were built new. They might even have floor plans which would show that this was the location of the fireplace. If the houses in your neighborhood are all the same, they might even have the architectural drawings that were used for construction that would confirm exactly what it was for.

FreeMan
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  • Thank you for the suggestion. As you may see from the comment I placed on the post below, I wasn't clear enough with my description and photo - sorry. The cover is on an adjacent wall, under a window, from where the fireplace once stood Sadly I've not been able to find anyone who has any drawings retained from the period it was built, and as yet nobody has done any remodelling work that might have helped to uncover it's purpose. – Max Oct 19 '23 at 13:17
  • Also, the wall where the chinney was is joined onto the neighbouring properties garage wall, I wondered maybe in the past whether it used to be an airway to feed the fireplace, and was modified to block it off, but it's odd (to me) that all the houses have it - many still have the fireplaces, so I discounted that idea – Max Oct 19 '23 at 13:20
  • @Max you still may want to contact the local historical society to see if they have any information about the original construction of your neighborhood. They may be able to tell you right off the bat, or at least be able to start you down the right trail to figure it out. – FreeMan Nov 28 '23 at 13:36
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A solid-fuel fire needs a fresh air supply, because the flow up through the chimney needs a compensating inlet. This blocks off what would originally have been a grating (which might still be behind it). Without the inlet, there would have been a draught, probably around the door from the hall into this room.

This should have led under the floor, with smaller gratings in the floor on each side of the hearth, so the cold air from outside does not go through the main part of the room.

Paul_Pedant
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    Sounds good but I have never seen such a thing. Can you provide any references, pictures or links to a system like this? Also, OP says he has a slab floor and his mystery thing is above grade, so unlikely to be a sub-floor airway. – jay613 Oct 20 '23 at 13:14
  • I find this a reasonable explanation given the closeness to fireplace. I had a house here in Chicago built in the 60s where the older furnace was about 10 feet from the outlet for the dryer. I crafted a cover to prevent the outlet during the winter from allowing the cold air to just flow into the room, but I found that the furnace relied on it during operation to feed combustion and with the cover, I started to get air and odor drawn up from the crawlspace. I played with that for awhile before I discovered they had butterfly valves that opened themselves when air was to be pushed or pulled. – J D Oct 20 '23 at 16:19
  • I can see on an old house someone having a mechanism to open up an inlet and a flue, and then closing them when the chimney wasn't in use. – J D Oct 20 '23 at 16:21
  • @jay613 Not seen one since I stopped installing central heating. I found a site that sells `Black Ornate Cast Iron Air Brick 9.25" x 6.5"` which seems about the right dimensions compared to the bricks. It may be a bit shallow, and has a thick fillet of mortar at the bottom, so this may just be a "close enough" oddment cemented in (possibly not very securely). – Paul_Pedant Oct 20 '23 at 22:06
  • @jay613 I am doubtful about the floor level. I think I see a Damp Proof Course and a double layer of mortar above the first complete brick layer, and the floor should be above that. The vent would be just a gap in the bricks and could angle downwards in the thickness of the wall (which should be double brick with an air gap, total about 13 inches). – Paul_Pedant Oct 20 '23 at 22:08
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Could easily be wrong, but it looks like a welded tie plate to me.

So the flat bar in the middle would run through the building and there would typically be a matching plate on the other side of the building. Old ones tend to be fancy nuts on threaded rods. This looks like you'd have a plate with a hole for the bar in it, and your welder comes along and welds the bar in place, then your painter paints it.

Ecnerwal
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  • After reading this I no longer see a door. But IDK, would a 1960s brick house be designed with exactly one tie plate, so large, so exposed and so close to the ground? – jay613 Oct 19 '23 at 14:45
  • I would guess with "one per house" and the wall joined to the next house wall and the UK, we're perhaps looking at row houses, so there would be multiple per structure, where a structure has many houses along its length. Mostly I'm just going on what I see in the picture, without discerning the designer's intent as we don't have an overall idea of how these fit in. – Ecnerwal Oct 19 '23 at 15:10
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    It does look a bit like a tie plate - but why would one be so close to the ground, when it would be far more use up at attic-height? Hmm… does the area have known subsidence? Old mining area perhaps? There is a small fault line we can see in the brickwork. – Tetsujin Oct 19 '23 at 16:03
  • It does seem a little low for a tie plate, and there is no similar (nothing in fact) on the opposite side of the house. It would explain why it won't budge though! – Max Oct 19 '23 at 16:30