Blocking noise from chimney

[ek20]

Noise from my neighbour's property seems to have increased over the last couple of years. I suspect that sometime during lockdown they installed a wall-mounted TV on the other side of the shared chimney breast in our respective living rooms. I wouldn't call it a nuisance, they don't tend to have it on too late etc, but it's definitely noticeable and you can tell when the football is on! We are in the process of getting our woodburning stove removed (whole other story) and I'm wondering if something can be done in the process to help with the noise as well - potentially just filling the chimney cavity? I've looked online but there seems to be articles from back in 2010, just wondered if anyone had done something similar more recently.

A chimney balloon might help a bit? Definitely worth a try as they are pretty cheap and easy to remove.

Yes, I've had a similar situation in what was my mother's property, which I'm now renovating. My solution was to remove the chimney breast and install soundproofing along the whole party wall. I'm replacing the gas fire and surround with an electric fireplace. My architect thinks that will cut out most of what I used to hear from next door.

NB if you do decide on this approach bear in mind that you need to get drawings from a structural engineer, party wall agreement with the neighbours, and BREGs approval. This obviously adds some costs - I estimate around £2K - but I consider it worth it for the peace and quiet, and also it's a better use of the space in the living room in my view, as the chimney breast always made the room feel quite narrow.

We had a noisy chimney, and a really old coal burner found after we moved it. We found a ChimneySheep from https://www.chimneysheep.co.uk really helped with the noise and the draft for the last yearish. Might consider other options after we deal with the list of other things, but for now it's working well.