Chimney breast

You might regret it, removing the plaster, all depends on the bricks used.

Their are brick slips which you can overlay wall with, there are hundreds of of different brick finishes, depending whether you want modern or old english,metric/imperial, wire cut or hand made & colour.
Most are stuck on with a tile like adhesive, & you can point in with a 5/1 mortar mix to give that orginal finish,prices can vary per metre square.

http://www.ibstock.com/brick-slips/

http://www.brickslipsdirect.co.uk/

 

Forgot to add, you can get internal/external corners pre made.






http://www.brickslipsltd.com/brick-slips-1-c.asp

 

What do you have there already ?

 

Plaster.

 

Walked into that one .......