Demolition of unique Sliema Baroque house

Tomorrow MEPA will be debating the demolition of what is probably the only early Baroque house in Sliema for it to be replaced by a block of flats.

Situated at the top of Ghar il-Lembi Street, corner with High Street, this unassuming house's most notable feature is the shallow balcony on the High Street side which is supported by a single continuous corbel running the length of the balcony.

Such corbelling is only seen in the oldest Valletta houses which are still in their original state, such as those in St Ursula Street or Old Mint Street. This would date the Ghar il-Lembi Street house from the late 1600s to the first quarter of the 1700s, as individual corbels as we now know them started to take over from continuous ones at the turn of the 18th century.

In fact the four individual corbels beneath the more recent balcony on the façade of the house were added later, as were the columns which unfortunately hide the Baroque door-surround which I have not seen anywhere else in Sliema.

Although the columns are later additions, they are also remarkable for their multi-faceted shaft, a unique form not conforming to any established order or seen or anywhere else in Sliema.

In a nutshell, although structures of the same period may exist in Sliema, there are none which display the architectural detailing of the early Baroque. We are therefore most likely dealing with the earliest surviving building of architectural note in Sliema.

This house may be seen all the way down High Street, and the building of a multi-storey structure would irreparably impact the whole streetscape, giving the already narrow streets a claustrophobic amosphere.

The High Street side of this building formed part of the Ministry of Tourism's campaign to upgrade Sliema's most characteristic lanes. Its demolition or even wholesale restructuring would ruin the whole effect and thus negatively impact the entire area.

With a building of such antiquity, even the building of upper storeys while preserving the façade would be unthinkable. I do not know whether the building is protected, but the absence of scheduling is surely no excuse for the scandalous destruction of one of Sliema's few remaining gems of architectural heritage to build yet another block of shoebox flats. As it is in a decent state of repair, the only option we should be considering is the restoration of the house to its former glory.