I started stripping a ground floor room for redecoration, and found damp, flaking plaster at the bottom of a bricked-up chimney breast. The breast is in the centre of a shared internal wall and has a vent at approx 18 inches up from the floor. I have opened the vent and cleaned all of the accumulated guff from inside the chimney (there wasn't very much of this) but the breast hasn't dried out yet (a few months later). There appears to be no damp anywhere else anywhere in the room, nor anywhere else in the house for that matter, and on this breast the damp is confined to the bottom 12 - 18 inches, and mainly at the side of the breast. Am I right to suspect that improving ventilation may cure this? Can I safely put airbricks in the sides of the breast? Any ideas would help. Cheers in anticipation..