Cleaning smoke damaged bricks

I've recently bought a 30 year old house, it has a wood combustion fireplace in the lounge (set in to a brick wall) and a number of the bricks have suffered smoke damage. We will replace the fireplace for next winter, but for now, I'm looking for advice around cleaning the smoke damage to the brickwork around the fireplace. Thanks

Wow tough and messy job. Only high pressure would clean this but the mess it will make is not worth it. You could try a high alkaline tile and grout cleaner. Apply, scrub then rinse rinse. Maybe even vinegar could work test first.

As per what GP says above. A bugger of a job.
I had a similar problem when I bought an old unit many years ago. Smoke stained bricks above the fireplace needed to be scrubbed before I rendered the wall. I used a big plastic sheet on the floor then used water and bleach to scrub with a scrubbing brush then sugar soap plus a few others I can't remember. Then just lots of water to rinse and leach the smoke and bleach/sugar soap etc from the bricks. I never got rid of it all but got the bricks clean enough to take the sand/cement render.
A lot will depend on whether your bricks are the softer kind or a harder type.

Stewie

Sorry for the bump - just a couple little suggestions.
Products that I have found to work to some extent for cleaning bricks - vinegar, gatorade (any sugary drink maybe?) Hydrochloric acid (try other options first) and finally depending on the brick you may be able to sand the very top layer off.