If you’ve ever gazed upon the grandeur of old buildings, you may have noticed protrusions extending upward from the brickwork of a chimney. Often made of terracotta, ceramic, and sometimes iron, these chimney pots serve a useful function on top of their decorative one. With rain shields, smoke vents, decorative ridges, and every shape from round to octagonal, chimney pots add a touch of class that you may not have realized belonged to them.
The chimney pot serves an important role from its place on the chimney’s apex. Lifting the smoke higher increases updraft and helps reduce downdraft. They’re especially vital for slow-burning fires like coal or peat, which don’t produce the strong updraft of more vigorous wood-fueled conflagrations. Each pot also separates individual flues in a multi-flue chimney, such as those in tenement buildings. Over time, they became stylized to add to the aesthetics of ornate structures and became incorporated into Gothic architecture.
As settlers moved from Europe to North America, they naturally brought along the concept of the chimney pot. Not a lot was written down about them because, well, they simply did their job and added a touch of style. One prolific writer of the 19th century did devote some attention to them, encouraging everyone to use this functional item to add a picturesque accent to a quaint and modest dwelling. Andrew Jackson Downing loved Gothic Revival architecture, and chimney pots came along for the ride. He advocated adding style to the windows and the chimney before all else--because those are useful accent points.
As brickwork chimneys became less common, and steel piping for woodstoves started taking over, chimney pots became less common. Many houses were built with no chimney, and adding a woodstove after the fact doesn’t often result in a full brickwork construction. That’s a shame, because chimney pots have the potential to instantly impart a sense of permanence to a structure. There’s something about a brick or stonework chimney that looks like it’s determined to stay there, and a chimney pot is the perfect crown. If you get yourself one of the fancy, side-vented, multi-sided chimney pots, you can really make a statement!
Whether you live in Europe or the United States, perhaps its time to give the humble chimney pot its due, and revive this feature across more of our houses. What do you think?
