In Whitehall’s Tudor Kitchen there is a distinctive and much altered Tudor fireplace. Joy Hall, Friend of Whitehall, tells us about it:
“At some unspecified time a brick chimney was built in the smoke bay, allowing more flexible use and reducing the risk of fire. Fitting the chimney into a tightly controlled space may have caused the installation to be less efficient, in which case it would be necessary to provide auxiliary passages to provide “secondary” air to promote efficient combustion. These seoondary passages were thought by some to look like nostrils and consequently the the structure became known as a nostril chimney.”
The nostril chimney at Whitehall is the only recorded stack of this type in the Surrey area and one of the reasons we think Whitehall’s original function may have been an official or administrative one. What do you think?
Whitehall Historic House 