Victorian Chimney Breast not tied in

Evening, in the process of replacing an open fire with a wood burner and the plaster was stripped off the breast.

We have found that the back wall of the fire doesn't look like it's tied in to the rest of the fire place and wall and the right hand side of the breast isn't tied in either. Any ideas what is going on?

Many thanks

It was never meant to be seen

Hahah yeah thanks for that and trust me I wish I hadn't.

It's has stood for 170 years and hasn't fallen down yet although we do get some cracking in the plaster on the other side and on the floor above to but nothing major it just doesn't make sense why they would do the left hand side properly and not tie tie right and side in?

Are you leaving that concrete lintel in? Reason for asking- at the moment all the loads in the breast are vertical, if you junk the lintel and go back to the original arch then there will be a bit of lateral force at the ends of the arch.

You could tie the face to the 2 righthand skins with a few resin anchors or Helibar and posh grout if you're worried.

Looks to me as if the inner skin on the right is toothed into the back wall- good odds the apprentice did it half brick and got a slap off the master when he came back from the pub

Thanks for the info oldbutnotdead, we put the lintel in as it just had a thin piece of metal in. The only reason we took the plaster off was because it had blown and a chunk came off when we took the old mdf mantel off.

I am not overly worried about it but that is because I don't know enough about building to be worried.

I was just going to repoint the few joints that need it and get somone to render and plaster it before the fitter finishes the stove.