Barriera wharf

Today I walked over with a friend for lunch at the Valletta Waterfront. I've walked along the Grand Harbour waterfront a few times during the past weeks either coming back from an expedition to a large furniture shop in Marsa where I found my new lounge suite or looking for a back way to the bus terminus displaced by carnival which in turn has been displaced by the work on the new City Gate.

The waterfront has been busy with ships making the run from Libya carrying foreign workers fleeing the upheaval. Sometimes there have been coaches parked waiting to transport people onward to the airport. Today, a South Korean warship was tied up in front of Brown's restaurant. I had watched it come in earlier this morning. The ship has been used to bring 36 South Koreans out of North Africa. In the tragedy of Libya, Malta is once again serving as a staging post for people displaced or damaged by war.

But I wanted to talk about the Barriera wharf which stretches from below Lower Barakka gardens near my flat, under the bastions as far as Victoria Gate into the city. Here, towards the end of their sojourn in Malta, the knights built a lovely curve of stores to service the wharf area. Halfway along the curve of the stores there was a small chapel that served as an open air altar for people being held at the quarantine station. From the small barriered area of wharf the quarantined travelers could see and hear what was happening at the altar.

During the British era, the middle section of the stores, including the chapel, was demolished to enable maintenance of the bastions. The fish market was also built in front of the right hand section of the stores so the lovely sweeping vista around the edge of the harbour was lost. Most of the stores are now derelict but there is talk of demolishing the fish market which is no longer used and putting in another cruise ship berth. I feel very positive about the idea of exposing and renovating the curve of the stores, but to then mask their beauty with another massive block of floating flats...

All part of the vibrant life of changing Valletta!

07/03/11. I am indebted to architect Joanna Spiteri Staines who has completed her masters thesis on the Barriera wharf. She has published an article in the Times of Malta, 20/02/11, and presented a lecture at Din l'art Helwa in Valletta on 24/02/11

The photo was taken from Dingli cliffs.