Hi hatty, Do you have a photo you can share of the fireplace to get a better idea of what might work for you?

If it’s a gas fire you will need a Gas Safe Engineer to remove It and cap it off if you no longer want a gas fire there. If you want to remove the fire surround then a builder should be able to do this for you if you don’t want to remove it yourself. If you want to open up the fireplace then again a builder can do this. Good luck Juby and Merry Christmas!

The hearth looks like marble so would be a shame to cover it in tiles. I like the wooden surround and it’s quite unusual. How about tiling the cream insert and painting the surround? Either white, or a colour to connect with the rooms decor. If you like 30s decor tiling in Arts &Crafts or Minton style tiles would be appropriate,

That looks more like a 1930s fireplace. We had the same in our living room and bedrooms. My OH removed the bedroom ones and boarded them up as space was tight. The one in the living he opened it up after getting advice from my builder brother. He then proceeded to clean up the bricks. We then added a Sandstone hearth and a wooden surround we bought from B & Q. If you want original Victorian then worth looking on eBay or Gumtree. I’m sorry I’ve no idea of costs if you have to employ someone to do this. Our surround was £99 many years ago and the sandstone paving is not expensive.