I have a nasty stain down the brickwork of the front of my house. I think a previous occupant must have had a boiler overflow problem because it stems from the overflow pipe. I have been told that, if I clean it with chemicals or abrasives that would leave another mark that would look out of place.
So I have decided to fix a trellis and cover it with a climbing plant. As the stain runs almost to the upstairs windows I need quite an aggressive growing plant. I'm not keen on Ivy as that is not good for the brickwork.
The old wives tale about Ivy being bad for brick work is just that. If your brickwork is sound and well-pointed the Ivy will not create a problem all it will do is use the moisture in the brickwork to develop but it won't reduce the wall to a dried out husk!!
The trouble with Virginia Creeper is if you pull it down off the wall in years to come it leaves thousands of little `finger` dots all over the brickwork and are a devilish job to remove, as I found out when I decided to paint the claddig on the front of my 2up-2down house.