Little hatch for old fire chimney

[dcoy]

Hi
I have this little panel that I assume opens to the old kitchen chimney flue which has long been removed.
Someone covered it with something that obviously wasn’t terribly successful. I’m wondering, after removing this panel, cleaning the junk out and reducing the rust what best to fill it with.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Ed

 

[23vc]

I’d just treat the rust and paint over it. Not worth the effort of trying to match the random textured finish if the whole thing’s redundant anyway

 

[dcoy]

Hi, thanks for the response.
I’m happy to spend a bit of time patching to be honest. I’m tidying up the back area and that panel is a bit of an eyesore. Plus material and dust occasionally pours out of the crack. I don’t mind if the render doesn’t match totally.
Thanks

 

[ree]

OP,
Given the external chimney breast is redundant then why not consider removing it if you some future time decide to do a hack off & re-rendering of that elevation?
The in-place render is an amateurish application & its failing - cracks are showing - & its neither one thing nor another in rendering terms.
What is the pipe stub poking out at the top of the pic?