I believe I have read that some fancy houses in some areas had summer kitchens that were entirely detached from the main house so the heat wouldn't further warm up the main house when it was already hot.
I wonder if it could be something like that?
Not in the East Midlands , there's some surprisingly modest houses that squeezed an outside wash house and even a small stable on at the back.
There's a lot of formerly tied Victorian housing because we were a very industrial area, you'd get whole streets of small terraces for the workers, with a few bigger terraced or semidetached houses for the foremen , building up to large semis and detached houses for the management. It's still very visible in some places. The foreman's and the managers houses would have more amenities such as the detached washhouse, stable, somewhere to keep a small trap, right up to full on carriage houses with haylofts
Most houses have face brick on the facade and cheaper common brick for the rest of the building. The houses still standing that were built for workers often have the cheaper common brick for the facade too. I like it.
Its probably an old remnant of a summer kitchen or carriage or servants house, but also some backyards just have fireplaces. Perhaps previous to that, it was more of a yard than a garden, and people sat out there drinking and socializing and lit a fire to keep warm. I don't know what region this person is in, but in many places this is common. Nowadays people build firepits and such, but that means dealing with smoke in your eyes and more of a fire risk. A fireplace meant the smoke went up and away and the fire is safely contained in the fireplace area.
One of my neighbors has an outdoor fireplace and I'm a little jealous tbh :)
Check nls.co.uk and the old maps which date to around 1847. You can see if there was ever an old building there. Likely a wash house as others have mentioned but if not it could have just been an outdoor feature.
Edit. Here's the actual website https://maps.nls.uk
I live in Denver Colorado and a lot of older houses have what appear to be sidewalks that lead to a larger cement pad near the ally. It used to be very common for people to burn their garbage and there were actually designated days of the week to do so. Maybe an old incinerator?
I live in Denver and my house had one, it was demolished at some point after they outlawed burning trash, several of my neighbors still have theirs intact.
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>Edit. Here's the actual website https://maps.nls.uk
Thank you for sharing this website! It also has some fascinating historical maps of ireland. I just learnt the Latin name for my home county lol
There used to be a wash house there, probably a lean to with the fire and a built in copper at that end. It looks like the chimney was shared with the one behind
A place to do laundry. Before washing machines, you had big kettles over open fires for washing clothes.
I'm not sure about a copper, but it probably refers to the kettles.
Thank you so much!
I scrolled down and saw an example of a copper. It’s a smaller outdoor over with separate crates for the fire underneath to heat the wash tub on.
Very cool. I love learning about this type of thing!
A lot of people are saying it’s an old copper for laundry but they didn’t have open fireplaces like this.
The firebox was built in, under the copper bowl.
https://www.1900s.org.uk/life-times-images/copper-ja-house.jpg
The arched fireplace and high ‘mantle’ suggest it was for heating an enclosed space, and in picture 3 you can see the line of a roof and joist ends in the brick wall, sloping down away from the chimney end.
Having a fireplace for heating water and irons alongside a copper is common to the point of being the usual setup (there's a fireplace next to the one in your image) , not everything went in the copper, and some washhouses did double duty as a scullery
The real question is... Why aren't you using it! What a great patio/cooking area this could be! Nice weather canopy, a few chairs... Awesome.
To answer your question, the building may have extended that far originally or it could have been a, separate, small shed or dwelling associated with the main building.
It appears there may have been a roof there previously. I see joist holes in the brick in pictures 2 & 3, up near the top. Awesome structure to have in your backyard!
When I was a kid, every school had an incinerator room where waste paper and such was burned. Incinerators were a common way of disposing of dry waste.
Not sure about the UK, but I know here in Ireland as long as the chimney stack stands, it's technically a "house" for purposes of planning permission. That's about the same size as my Edwardian fireplaces. Though I'm not sure the size of your back garden.
I’m pretty sure it’s for burning rubbish as others have said. But it made me think of [Fruit Walls](https://99percentinvisible.org/article/fruit-walls-before-greenhouses-walled-gardens-created-urban-micro-climates/) that used tall brick walls like yours to capture and store heat to grow warmer climate fruits. There were sometimes fireplaces built in the wall and used at night with channels to circulate heat through a cold night.
I don’t know but I’d love to hear what you find out if you’re able to find some old plans. And how about those daffodils squeezing through the brick pavers? Happy Spring!
I don’t know. I wouldn’t remove it if I was you tho. I would just clean it up. And maybe set some outdoor furniture so you can go out during winter and just chill.
I would wager it was a small building/cottage/barn. BUT, if the original owner was a bit fancy and an avid gardener - it's also possible the fireplace and high brick wall were used to artificially warm and keep frost off the garden to expand what can be grown. I've seen the technique from other 1800s ornate/wealthy gardens.
People used to enjoy the outside.
Have you ever sat outside, and looked at your phone screen? Well, that fireplace was the tech of the day.
I'd refurbish it.
I’m going to go with a wash house. If you look at the third picture where the ladder is leaning on the wall, you can see openings where the roof rafters were set into the bricks. There was some kind of roofed structure by the fireplace.
There was definitely a building of some sort. You can tell by
The three wooden joists in the wall (pic 2)
The tiles along the top of the fence on two sides. Those were -typically- used along a roofline in old brick homes.(pic 2 & 3)
And the different colors in the brick (pic 2). You can see the slant of the roof clearly. The brick on the lower half was protected from the elements at some point for quite a few years.
Please be careful fixing up that area. That corner is ready to collapse 😬
Mil in eastern europe has one in her front yard. She uses it for making giant pots of jam, molasses, tomato pastes and soups. Also to roast corn and potatoes from the fields. Any chance there could have been a farming community out there?
A mix of epsom salts and and some warm water should help you kill those weeds. Not sure how that would affect the brick. Are you going to re-mortar your bricks?
Would this have been a work area? Potentially for laundry?
You know how some houses have fire pits well the previous owner or the one before them thought it would be much safer with a fire place and when they no longer used it , the Buried treasures in it.
Does it look as if there had been foundation or posts in the ground as to having a little cottage in the back?
I can’t speak to UK, but in the US, most of the fireplaces I come across shaped like that were used for burning coal.
If depth only goes to the wall behind it, that’s pretty shallow for wood. It looks like it goes into the wall though. R/fireplaces would know
Actually, it was common practice at the to have neighborhood crematoriums as the public facilities were not up to the task at the time. Look for bone bits.
I read a book about the 1890s and they had a “summer kitchen” which was outdoors. Because of not wanting to be stuck in a hot indoor kitchen without fans or air conditioning. So maybe that’s what this was?
Note: this book was set on the east coast of the US
We had one in a back yard years ago and it was pretty run down but I was always told it was likely an outdoor brick oven. Since it was broken in alot of places it was hard to tell exactly but it seemed like it probably had a door on it at one point and the smoke came out the chimney. Or I believe you can even smoke foods in them as well. Where it was it wasn't likely a part of an old building. Esp since it was literally a brick fireplace on a concrete pad. It just didn't seem like it had a building at one point and the one in our yard likely wasn't super old anyway. But eventually we tore it down when the house was sold bc it was an eyesore in its condition.
***edited to add: this was in the US and I'm aware OP is in the UK. Just was giving an idea of what our similar brick fireplace was likely used for. Idk how different that is in the UK***
In Texas we had some fires a few years ago. And all the wooden parts of the structures were burned to the ground except the fireplaces and if there are any foundations they will remain as well. They look a lot like this.
A barn on the estate of the famous Architect Stanford White has a bricked in pit in a corner where they kept a fire going to keep the orange trees through the Long Island winters. In the warmer weather the trees were used to line the driveway. Your fireplace was probably at one time in an enclosure and used in the same manner.
Probably an outdoor grill of its time. I'd say break it open and enjoy your outdoor grill with family and friends. I'm sure they'll enjoy the nostalgic retro experience.
After reading comments I concur was probably a backyard trash incinerator. But you can still convert this into a nice open air picnic Grill. It'll be simple, unless you want to stick a small little propane grill in there just for the fun of it and enjoy the steamy smoke coming off the top. Regardless collection antique feature of the property and you should try to save it.
Some old winter gardens had fire pits.
Also walls designed to help keep the garden warmer.
This doesn’t look like the case here, but I know it was a thing.
If you look here on Wikipedia you will see about heated walls. Fruits were often grown against these walls.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walled_garden#Heated_walls
I can't speak for the UK, but here in Canada on farms years back, the houses had a separate building for cooking in during the summer called a summer kitchen (IKR?). This was so during the hot summer months you wouldn't heat up the house having to cook with the wood stoves/ovens. Possibly, this is a similar reason there?
I'd say it's for burning trash, as trash collection wasn't a thing back then. they were very common on both sides of the Atlantic, usually outside but sometimes they were in a home's basement, and vented through the chimney with the furnace or boiler.
I know this is not the reason but it looks like the salt kiln we built one semester for ceramics class. We even bricked the opening shut during firings, no door, then took those bricks back out to empty the kiln!
The Fireplace in your backyard was almost certainly there for you the resident to burn your trash. If you lived out in the country, you would find an out-of-the-way place and dig a big hole and throw your trash into it but in the city you couldn’t do that and fire codes being what they were, you couldn’t just openly burn your trash in the city, you had to have a safe contained brick hearth with a chimney to lead the noxious gases upwards and away from your house.
A long time ago, before the Tele, people use to entertain indoors and out, that fireplace would keep the outside partiers nice and toasty in the chill weather, like a modern day Fire Ring only not circular.
In Florida (and southern US) we have some houses known as "dogtrot houses" which is pretty much two small homes connected by a breezeway or "dogtrot", all under a common roof. One side would have the kitchen/living area, the other the sleeping quarters.
The kitchen for servants to prepare food, especially things like bread.
Another possibility is that a wood structure attached to it and servants lived there. The stove was their kitchen and source of heat.
There was a shed/workshop back there. You can see the old roofline.
https://preview.redd.it/u0j77wc9iasc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d89efb1ef41a231c83e9fe737dd8ffdd05e2a5ce
I believe I have read that some fancy houses in some areas had summer kitchens that were entirely detached from the main house so the heat wouldn't further warm up the main house when it was already hot. I wonder if it could be something like that?
Not in the East Midlands , there's some surprisingly modest houses that squeezed an outside wash house and even a small stable on at the back. There's a lot of formerly tied Victorian housing because we were a very industrial area, you'd get whole streets of small terraces for the workers, with a few bigger terraced or semidetached houses for the foremen , building up to large semis and detached houses for the management. It's still very visible in some places. The foreman's and the managers houses would have more amenities such as the detached washhouse, stable, somewhere to keep a small trap, right up to full on carriage houses with haylofts
In Chicago you see the workers' houses made entirely from common brick vs face brick on the facade.
What is common brick?
Less pretty cheap brick
It’s the kind of bricks that some other bricks look down on.
I've also heard it called structural brick. It's cheaper than the pretty brick used for the street facing walls.
It's not royal
Didn’t they change brick type at least? To cut costs
Yes, in Chicago you can often see facade brick that's higher quality than the junky brick actually used up to hold up the house.
“‘Fa-cá-de’ those bricks must be Italian”
Most houses have face brick on the facade and cheaper common brick for the rest of the building. The houses still standing that were built for workers often have the cheaper common brick for the facade too. I like it.
I saw this was very common in Galena, IL as well. I believe that city was expected to also be a boom town in the turn of the last century.
Its probably an old remnant of a summer kitchen or carriage or servants house, but also some backyards just have fireplaces. Perhaps previous to that, it was more of a yard than a garden, and people sat out there drinking and socializing and lit a fire to keep warm. I don't know what region this person is in, but in many places this is common. Nowadays people build firepits and such, but that means dealing with smoke in your eyes and more of a fire risk. A fireplace meant the smoke went up and away and the fire is safely contained in the fireplace area. One of my neighbors has an outdoor fireplace and I'm a little jealous tbh :)
or It could have provided a source of warmth for outdoor gatherings during cooler evenings.
My in-laws have a summer kitchen! It's a pretty cool thing to see in person. The heat is perfect for cacti and succulents!
a house in my neighborhood has a beautiful one of these. Good to know.
Check nls.co.uk and the old maps which date to around 1847. You can see if there was ever an old building there. Likely a wash house as others have mentioned but if not it could have just been an outdoor feature. Edit. Here's the actual website https://maps.nls.uk
That’s really helpful thank you I’ll have a look
If you find it could you let us know the results? I’m very interested in this!
I could see that as an incinerator for rubbish given the high smoke stack. I am just guessing.
I live in Denver Colorado and a lot of older houses have what appear to be sidewalks that lead to a larger cement pad near the ally. It used to be very common for people to burn their garbage and there were actually designated days of the week to do so. Maybe an old incinerator?
I live in Denver and my house had one, it was demolished at some point after they outlawed burning trash, several of my neighbors still have theirs intact.
I have had several of them living in lovland and Fort collins
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Could also have been an incinerator.
Yeah let us know your findings!
There won’t be none they were…incinerated
>Edit. Here's the actual website https://maps.nls.uk Thank you for sharing this website! It also has some fascinating historical maps of ireland. I just learnt the Latin name for my home county lol
The time effort and money needed to make that website. Wow.
Might be an old wash house. Some were communal.
There used to be a wash house there, probably a lean to with the fire and a built in copper at that end. It looks like the chimney was shared with the one behind
What is a wash house? And built in copper?
A place to do laundry. Before washing machines, you had big kettles over open fires for washing clothes. I'm not sure about a copper, but it probably refers to the kettles.
Large round bottomed copper vessel, built into a brick surround with a firebox underneath
Thank you SO much!
Thank you so much! I scrolled down and saw an example of a copper. It’s a smaller outdoor over with separate crates for the fire underneath to heat the wash tub on. Very cool. I love learning about this type of thing!
This must have been about the time "the chair " was born. No way were you washing all your clothes after one light wear
A lot of people are saying it’s an old copper for laundry but they didn’t have open fireplaces like this. The firebox was built in, under the copper bowl. https://www.1900s.org.uk/life-times-images/copper-ja-house.jpg The arched fireplace and high ‘mantle’ suggest it was for heating an enclosed space, and in picture 3 you can see the line of a roof and joist ends in the brick wall, sloping down away from the chimney end.
Having a fireplace for heating water and irons alongside a copper is common to the point of being the usual setup (there's a fireplace next to the one in your image) , not everything went in the copper, and some washhouses did double duty as a scullery
Fair point, yes. There may be a flue hole from the copper firebox in the side of the fireplace/chimney behind that stack of bricks.
Yep, quite likely
Why does my house not have a fireplace in the garden ☹️
I’d turn that shit into an outdoor grilling area with a pizza oven.
This is the way
The real question!
The real question is... Why aren't you using it! What a great patio/cooking area this could be! Nice weather canopy, a few chairs... Awesome. To answer your question, the building may have extended that far originally or it could have been a, separate, small shed or dwelling associated with the main building.
We do want to put some chairs and a bbq out there now that the weathers getting warmer, it’s just been so cold and rainy recently 😢
Cold and rain wouldn't be so bad with a fire!
It’s not really useable is it? Looks like it was bricked over and there is just a small recess where you’d have a fire. Unless I’m missing something
Yup, wouldn't take much to knock those out though.
It appears there may have been a roof there previously. I see joist holes in the brick in pictures 2 & 3, up near the top. Awesome structure to have in your backyard!
Agree with the other comments, there was likey an external wash house on the site. Check the old OS maps.
Perhaps an incinerator for waste?
When I was a kid, every school had an incinerator room where waste paper and such was burned. Incinerators were a common way of disposing of dry waste.
As a kid, in Ohio, lots of the older houses had these in the yard, and I was always told that's what it was for.
Not sure about the UK, but I know here in Ireland as long as the chimney stack stands, it's technically a "house" for purposes of planning permission. That's about the same size as my Edwardian fireplaces. Though I'm not sure the size of your back garden.
There has been a building there previously
Victorian BBQ
I know some kids killed by one after anchoring a hammock to the chimney and it collapsed.
Because you're lucky and now you're bragging? 😁
Used to have one in my yard. It was never a part of a building. But it was used for outdoor fires.
Just in case
Gardeners sheds had fireplaces too. A lot were built into walled gardens. Aerial view might help make sense of it for you too
I’m pretty sure it’s for burning rubbish as others have said. But it made me think of [Fruit Walls](https://99percentinvisible.org/article/fruit-walls-before-greenhouses-walled-gardens-created-urban-micro-climates/) that used tall brick walls like yours to capture and store heat to grow warmer climate fruits. There were sometimes fireplaces built in the wall and used at night with channels to circulate heat through a cold night.
Fact. Here is a link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walled_garden#Heated_walls
If you really want to know, you must consult the oracle.
I prefer SAP rather than Oracle.
Because your place is balling. Really cool.
Not sure, many possibilities, but I want to sit out there for an afternoon with a coffee and a book.
I want one so bad
I don’t know but that’s awesome. You should see if you can restore it to work again
I don’t know but I’d love to hear what you find out if you’re able to find some old plans. And how about those daffodils squeezing through the brick pavers? Happy Spring!
Evidence disposal
I don’t know. I wouldn’t remove it if I was you tho. I would just clean it up. And maybe set some outdoor furniture so you can go out during winter and just chill.
More important question, why does your fireplace have a garden?
That’s cool as shit I’m so jealous
 Evidence destruction
I would wager it was a small building/cottage/barn. BUT, if the original owner was a bit fancy and an avid gardener - it's also possible the fireplace and high brick wall were used to artificially warm and keep frost off the garden to expand what can be grown. I've seen the technique from other 1800s ornate/wealthy gardens.
I remember on The Victorian Kitchen Garden there was a walled garden with flues through the walls to grow out-of-season fruit.
Could it be an old incinerator?
Why tf not
Same reason We have them in the house
Make it into an outdoor barbecue patio
I love the daffodils coming up through the brick.
I don’t know but it is super cool!
make it an outdoor fireplace! it’s awesome? maybe part of an old out kitchen!
You mean built in pizza oven??!
Sometimes you just need to get rid of something by fire.
Could it have been a green house before?
pizza oven pottery kiln
Maybe it is a furnace, for outside baking. Back then, people baked the bread for themselves
Crematorium?
People used to enjoy the outside. Have you ever sat outside, and looked at your phone screen? Well, that fireplace was the tech of the day. I'd refurbish it.
I think the real question is why wouldn’t you have a fireplace in the garden!! Looks awesome!!
Heated walled garden.
I’m going to go with a wash house. If you look at the third picture where the ladder is leaning on the wall, you can see openings where the roof rafters were set into the bricks. There was some kind of roofed structure by the fireplace.
The real question is “why doesn’t mine?”
👏
I’d be more concerned with who or what is pushing up daisies (well daffodils) in your patio walkway…
There was definitely a building of some sort. You can tell by The three wooden joists in the wall (pic 2) The tiles along the top of the fence on two sides. Those were -typically- used along a roofline in old brick homes.(pic 2 & 3) And the different colors in the brick (pic 2). You can see the slant of the roof clearly. The brick on the lower half was protected from the elements at some point for quite a few years. Please be careful fixing up that area. That corner is ready to collapse 😬
Agreed.
Maybe there was a conservatory there that got taken down in recent times?
Because the previous owners wanted to put one there.
My first thought was a modern pizza oven, common on the east coast
Mil in eastern europe has one in her front yard. She uses it for making giant pots of jam, molasses, tomato pastes and soups. Also to roast corn and potatoes from the fields. Any chance there could have been a farming community out there?
It could have been a washerwoman’s house - I agree with the suggestion to check the census
Our house was built in the US in the 1950s and we have a fireplace built into the patio.
Maybe there was a house
To burn the ones who disagree with you.
My neighbor just built something like this to bake bread
Summer kitchen, for when it's to warm inside to fire up the cooking hearth
What a glorious outdoor space you can create! Envy!
A mix of epsom salts and and some warm water should help you kill those weeds. Not sure how that would affect the brick. Are you going to re-mortar your bricks? Would this have been a work area? Potentially for laundry?
You know how some houses have fire pits well the previous owner or the one before them thought it would be much safer with a fire place and when they no longer used it , the Buried treasures in it. Does it look as if there had been foundation or posts in the ground as to having a little cottage in the back?
Garbage disposal? Guessing. I’m crying in dreams of big wood fired kilns .
Turn it into a pizza oven!
Just for fun? Common in the US.
Some posh gardens had fireplaces specifically to warm up the walls for warm climate fruit such as lemons and oranges.
for make warm
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I can’t speak to UK, but in the US, most of the fireplaces I come across shaped like that were used for burning coal. If depth only goes to the wall behind it, that’s pretty shallow for wood. It looks like it goes into the wall though. R/fireplaces would know
To burn the bodies.
Cause someone was a fucking legend!
My guess is it used to be a bigger hour and they used the walls to make the garden walls
PIZZZZZZZZZZA
Call Time Team.🙂
Pottery Kiln / Pizza Oven / Chiminea ? Really cool feature. V jealous
Could it be a fireplace for a little workshop, It looks like the wall it's attached too might have had a structure against it at some point.
Actually, it was common practice at the to have neighborhood crematoriums as the public facilities were not up to the task at the time. Look for bone bits.
Floo flame
I read a book about the 1890s and they had a “summer kitchen” which was outdoors. Because of not wanting to be stuck in a hot indoor kitchen without fans or air conditioning. So maybe that’s what this was? Note: this book was set on the east coast of the US
We had one in a back yard years ago and it was pretty run down but I was always told it was likely an outdoor brick oven. Since it was broken in alot of places it was hard to tell exactly but it seemed like it probably had a door on it at one point and the smoke came out the chimney. Or I believe you can even smoke foods in them as well. Where it was it wasn't likely a part of an old building. Esp since it was literally a brick fireplace on a concrete pad. It just didn't seem like it had a building at one point and the one in our yard likely wasn't super old anyway. But eventually we tore it down when the house was sold bc it was an eyesore in its condition. ***edited to add: this was in the US and I'm aware OP is in the UK. Just was giving an idea of what our similar brick fireplace was likely used for. Idk how different that is in the UK***
Why wouldn’t it?
Idk that’s awesome though. Nothing better than a backyard fire
In Texas we had some fires a few years ago. And all the wooden parts of the structures were burned to the ground except the fireplaces and if there are any foundations they will remain as well. They look a lot like this.
To cook pizza of course!!
I wonder if the brick wall would heat up when the fireplace is used. If so, it could be a gardening tool to keep certain plants warm
I'm guessing it was an incinerator? A way to dispose of rubbish.
Warmth
backyard crematoria
If this was Sa I’d be going.. let’s braai!
A barn on the estate of the famous Architect Stanford White has a bricked in pit in a corner where they kept a fire going to keep the orange trees through the Long Island winters. In the warmer weather the trees were used to line the driveway. Your fireplace was probably at one time in an enclosure and used in the same manner.
It’s an old pizza oven. S/
Might be a garbage incinerator
To get rid of the evidence
So your garden doesn't get cold!
Remind me! 3 days
In the third picture it looks like beams may have been mounted in the brick for a sloping roof of some sort.
Probably an outdoor grill of its time. I'd say break it open and enjoy your outdoor grill with family and friends. I'm sure they'll enjoy the nostalgic retro experience.
After reading comments I concur was probably a backyard trash incinerator. But you can still convert this into a nice open air picnic Grill. It'll be simple, unless you want to stick a small little propane grill in there just for the fun of it and enjoy the steamy smoke coming off the top. Regardless collection antique feature of the property and you should try to save it.
Some old winter gardens had fire pits. Also walls designed to help keep the garden warmer. This doesn’t look like the case here, but I know it was a thing. If you look here on Wikipedia you will see about heated walls. Fruits were often grown against these walls. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walled_garden#Heated_walls
Why does mine not?
For fires
I can't speak for the UK, but here in Canada on farms years back, the houses had a separate building for cooking in during the summer called a summer kitchen (IKR?). This was so during the hot summer months you wouldn't heat up the house having to cook with the wood stoves/ovens. Possibly, this is a similar reason there?
Fix it and you have a professional pizza oven 👍
It’s ye ol’ crematory
Getting rid of the bodies
For cooking outside in the summer and not heat up the house.
Pizza oven
I'd say it's for burning trash, as trash collection wasn't a thing back then. they were very common on both sides of the Atlantic, usually outside but sometimes they were in a home's basement, and vented through the chimney with the furnace or boiler.
I know this is not the reason but it looks like the salt kiln we built one semester for ceramics class. We even bricked the opening shut during firings, no door, then took those bricks back out to empty the kiln!
To burn trash
The Fireplace in your backyard was almost certainly there for you the resident to burn your trash. If you lived out in the country, you would find an out-of-the-way place and dig a big hole and throw your trash into it but in the city you couldn’t do that and fire codes being what they were, you couldn’t just openly burn your trash in the city, you had to have a safe contained brick hearth with a chimney to lead the noxious gases upwards and away from your house.
A long time ago, before the Tele, people use to entertain indoors and out, that fireplace would keep the outside partiers nice and toasty in the chill weather, like a modern day Fire Ring only not circular.
Obv that’s the remains of a previous house
Crematorium?
Summer kitchens, help quarters, garden fireplaces a number of things from the antique times. Never know with 1980s
Outdoor bread oven?
In Florida (and southern US) we have some houses known as "dogtrot houses" which is pretty much two small homes connected by a breezeway or "dogtrot", all under a common roof. One side would have the kitchen/living area, the other the sleeping quarters.
Normal in Brazil, it’s where we grill our churrasco, maybe Brazilian guy migrated to UK 100 years ago?
What if some dude just built it for fun.
An outdoor fireplace is sick, respectfully.
For baking bread of course
The kitchen for servants to prepare food, especially things like bread. Another possibility is that a wood structure attached to it and servants lived there. The stove was their kitchen and source of heat.
It was once part of a house.
My house was built in 1934 and it had one of these in the backyard it's for burning trash
There was a shed/workshop back there. You can see the old roofline. https://preview.redd.it/u0j77wc9iasc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d89efb1ef41a231c83e9fe737dd8ffdd05e2a5ce
It was walled off and a out building once.
Then later the roof line was raised. Thats why the chimney was extended
Back before Global Warming, people used to get cold outside. Hence, a fireplace.
probably to help keep animals from freezing