There seems to have been some reluctance on the part of camera artists to photograph construction projects before they had reached completion. Most preferred to record something when it had reached perfection, rather than on its way there. That possibly accounts for the scarcity of antique photographs of big architectural or engineering projects still under construction.
St Luke’s Hospital in Gwardamangia being built in the late 1930s.
Works on the Għajn Dwieli tunnel, beneath St Paul’s Bastion, Cospicua, 1906.
Armament Depot in Cottonera being built in 1903.
Construction work on the Catholic Institute in Floriana came to an end in 1959.
These ‘work in progress’ images, when they exist at all, give good indications of the evolution of the project but, better still, they document old building methods and equipment, at a time when practically all the tasks were undertaken by hand. Today, it would be unthinkable to divorce buildings from high-rise cranes, concrete mixers, powerful winches and Hymac excavators.
A hothouse being built at the Argotti Gardens, Floriana, c. 1906.
Construction work on the new Law Courts, c. 1967.
Look at the old photos and you will mostly see flimsy scaffolding, wooden ladders and crossed erect poles with a hand-operated tarjola or composite pulley blocks. These building methods and techniques, passed over by oral tradition, only seem to have evolved imperceptibly over many centuries. And, yet, these ‘primitive’ methods achieved the pyramids and the Colosseum.
Building a government school in Valletta, c.1904
Construction works in Sliema, primary school, c.1904
The apartment blocks on the side of Kingsgate, Valletta, being built c. 1964.
The most revolutionary changes started with the adoption of new building material, like cast iron for the new Valletta market begun in 1859, reinforced concrete in the over-ground water reservoirs and breeze blocks, which edged out the centuries-old more aesthetically pleasant but more expensive limestone kantun.
I am dividing this feature in two: this one focusing on civilian constructions and the next one dealing with ecclesiastical buildings.
A steel lift from the Upper Barrakka to the Grand Harbour waterfront was completed in 1905.
Works on the new Grand Harbour breakwaters in progress, c. 1905.
Notable military or engineering works from the colonial era are included, like the Grand Harbour breakwaters, the Barrakka lift and the new ambitious Duke of York Avenue, now Girolamo Cassar Avenue, leading to Castille.
The first Golden Bay Hotel in Għajn Tuffieħa being built before 1960.
Balluta Buildings, St Julian’s Bay, under construction in 1927.
Excellent architects, engineers and mgħallmin (masters of their craft) ensured that very few building dysfunctions are recorded pre-1940s.