Electric or Gas fireplace or wood burner!

Yes, please do have a chimney inspection first before you decide what to do.
We considered putting our woodstove in our dining room when we moved here 20 years ago but the chimney repair and lining work was £4,000 then. It was an imported stove with internal baffles which recirculated the air for maximum burn and other features which at the time were "cutting edge" but it probably wouldn't meet new standards. I really loved it though. Such a treat to always have one room warm, to air nappies and clothes in front of it overnight. Makes me feel very fuzzy inside - the same way I feel about my family home's Aga cooker.

BTW, our chimney was checked with a video camera.

Grandtante is right about the soot but it's also the resins that become a fire risk.
We had a woodstore rotation of 2 years as some wood is much greener than you think.
If you are keeping it burning day and night it will use a lot of wood. Ours took quite large logs so less cutting, splitting and sawing but I know someone who apparently runs his boiler on smaller stuff and even woodchip waste.

Mine is a modern multi fuel burner, and I use a mixture of seasoned wood (3 years+) andsmokeless coal, luckily I have a big garden so plenty of storage space for logs). This keeps particle emissions to the minimum. I wouldn’t be without it, I live in the country, with no gas, and an electricity supply that is not reliable in the winter.

I am in a new build and have a flue for a stove, also connections ready for gas or electric. I had a modern stovax put in, fully conforming to the new regs, multi fuel. Sweep is actually coming tomorrow. Most particle problems seem to come from old stoves and from burning un-seasoned wood, also from having the stove burn at too low a temperature

I put a flue thermometer on the flue, to help me get the optimum temperature for clean burning. I still have some kiln dried logs stored, also a stash of bord na nona briquettes, which I will not be replacing. My coal bunker is full of smokeless anthracite eggs and I have a few more sacks in the garage. It has been trial and error to get the cleanest, most efficient fuel but I will, eventually, only be using the smokeless eggs

My flue is straight up with no bends. Last house had a bendy flue and the fire cement sealing the joints, would sometimes crack. I could then smell the wood smoke while the wood pellet stove heated up. There was no smoke when it was up to temperature. Same with any stove or fire, slow burn with wood, will produce particles and the worst for that is wood that is damp deep inside ie not properly seasoned

www.clearskiesmark.org/about-us/certification-system-explained/
May help you choose a stove that has certification that has looked at
CO – Carbon Monoxide
PM – Particulate Matter
OGC – Organic Gaseous Compounds
NOx – Nitrogen Oxide