Fireblack

One of those domino jobs.  

Fed up with grit appearing on the floor of the Blue Room fireplace I investigate whether there's a chimney 'door'.  There is, but encrusted with rust and fallen piles of lime mortar dust. Clearing this is stymied by a sheet of metal that someone added to the back of the fireplace to cover the firebricks - it never looked right. Removing that requires extracting the mortar dust and detritus that's accumulated behind it.

A couple of dustbags and breathing filters later that's cleared, the metal sheet extracted and the door exercised into movement and near-enough closing. I want to keep some airflow through it anyway.

While I'm here I may as well give it a coat of paint...