The jostling of Malta into the British sphere of influence in 1800 revolutionised entertainment in Malta. From being the home of the most aristocratic Order in Europe, the island became overnight the military base of outstanding world power. 

The notion of enjoyment of the scions of European nobility did not always coincide with the tastes of illiterate jacktars from Kensington, Liverpool or troopers from the Red Bank in Manchester.

Victoria cabaret in Strait Street, Valletta, late 1920s.

In fact, during the Order’s rule, Malta had no red-light districts. Taverns abounded, nor were brothels missing but no urban territory catered almost exclusively for prostitution, boozing, revelry and petty criminality. Those only mushroomed in British Malta, around Strait Street, Balzunetta and the Senglea and Gżira seafronts. 

Seamen on board the HMS Euryalus in Grand Harbour dressed up in costume. Photo: Salvatore Lorenzo Cassar

Britain, compared to an Order that only kept a tiny fleet, boasted the largest navy in the world. When on land, deckhands expected to have fun, their type of fun. 

Tony’s Bar, on the Sliema seafront, Christmas card, 1932. Almost a hundred years’ favourite with British servicemen and still active today.

This feature attempts to show what ‘wine, women and song’ looked like in early Malta for British servicemen. Nothing too sophisticated: alcohol, music, women. Malta overflowed with all that.

During World War I, the French Mediterranean fleet was also stationed in Malta but then left to find another base, as far too many of its seamen were succumbing to syphilis and gonorrhoea in Malta.

‘First impressions’: a cartoon by ‘Rev’ showing the interior of a music hall in Strait Street, Valletta, in the 1930s.

A number of venues styled themselves ‘music halls’ where cabaret artists who had given up dreaming of the West End, good local musicians, eastern European xantusi, acrobats and cross-dressers gave nightly shows when the fleet was in.

A troupe of nine seamen dressed as ballerinas performing on a ship in Grand Harbour in the 1930s.

The bouncers (then ‘chuckers-out’) at the door invited servicemen in with the mantra “Come in boys, very nice girls inside, exhibition upstairs”.

An artist performing in a Valletta music hall in Strada Stretta, early 1930.

Once inside, the ladies egged the dupe to order drinks for the couple.

He was served one rum, whisky or beer but paid for two; she got coloured water and a token (landa), which she later cashed at the till. 

All images from the author’s collection.

The Funbeans troupe performing at the Mtarfa Military Hospital in WWI. Photo: Richard Ellis

The 1918 fundraising Patriotic Concert held annually in the Australia Hall, Pembroke, featuring a performance of Beauty and the Beast.