What were these old pipes for?

[Gerrydelasel]

Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to what these pipes were for?
There's a pair of copper pipes near the bottom of my cellar door (it looks like there may have been four), pinched off at the end. It looks like they were once chased into the cellar wall, but exactly where they went I'm not sure. In the other direction they run along the skirting, boxed in, towards the kitchen (see red line)where they disappear into the kitchen door frame and behind some more recent plasterboard.
I would like to rip them out along with the boxing, but first I thought it might be useful to know what purpose they may have served in the dim and distant past...

 

[Dan Robinson]

How the feck should we know?

 

[AGAS]

 

[Madrab]

 

[jedi]

 

[bernardgreen]

If the building is pre 1900 then there may have been a solid fuel wash copper in the cellar ( any evidence of there having been a chimney ? ) which could have included a back boiler to provide hot water to the kitchen. If the other two pipes are cast iron they would have been the original gravity circuit. The copper pipes might be a later upgrade to a gas fired boiler or replacements for the cast iron pipes which may have by then become clogged and /or leaky.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

If the building is pre 1900 then there may have been a solid fuel wash copper in the cellar ( any evidence of there having been a chimney ? )

Yes and yes! That sounds plausible!

Other contributors: +1 for meme usage!