Fixing curtain pole

[Brigadier]

All things considered, is it preferable to fit a curtain pole's brackets direct to the wall (plaster straight to brick), or to a wooden batten attached to the wall first?
Is it a convenience thing, a style thing, or something else?

 

[JohnD]

through the plaster and into the brick (or lintel if you can drill it)

battens are used where this is for some reason difficult, or the wall is wildly out of flat

 

[calorific]

Direct to the wall if possible IMO, although I can see the need for a batten to be put in place first for the reasons you cite. I think that it tends to go on a strip of timber partly due to sod's law of hitting a mortar line or some inpenetrable object, which you can muck around with a few places and fill in any mis-drills and paint over,

 

[gissle]

Yes, directly to the wall if possible. At the end of the day you will have the same problems fixing the batton to the wall as you would fitting the rail.