I’m running Cat6 and would like to use wall plates rather than just pulling the cables out of the walls and sticking a Cat6 plug on the end. I’m in the UK and all the walls are brick. Would I need to somehow carve out the bricks or is there some easier way to do it?
Surface mount may be the way to go.
You can get surface mount boxes with keystone jacks that point out the side. These will be reasonably low-profile.
You could probably “rough up” the cover a bit with some sandpaper, and paint the cover of the box so that it blends in with the color of your bricks.
If you install the surface mount so that the jack(s) themselves point towards the floor, it would naturally direct the cables downwards, while hiding the unpainted faces of the keystone jack from direct view.
Additionally, you could choose dark-colored RJ45 keystone jacks, such as black, dark red, or grey, rather than using the more stark white or almond colors.