Removing brick Fireplace

[meeabi]

Hiya, our place had a horrendous decorative brick fireplace which I tried to almost successfully remove. I’ve removed most of it out and want to brick it up.

My question is to do with the lintel. There was a smaller metal bar hanging around behind the old fireplace which just fell out, but did have a few bricks on top of it, they just fell away. I think this was a later added smaller arch. I continued to open it up and there’s a wider one supporting the arch of bricks now which is sturdy. See pic. It’s a curved metal bar about 2.5 inches wide.

Would it be safe to say it’s safe like this?

I want to brick it up, but do I need to support it? I’m under the assumption that the original fireplace was this size...

What do you guys think? Cheers b

 

[meeabi]

See picture! Tks

 

[dontbelieveawordofit]

pull all the rubble out and brick it up if the base is solid. dont forget to vent it and make sure theres a good solid base with a dpc.

 

[mrrusty]

Personally I think bricked up chimney breasts with vents in look bad. Why not open it up to the original size, tidy it up and just fit a plate in the chimney with a vent in. Lots of things you can put into an opened-up fireplace in addition to fires - flowers, wine racks, music systems etc.