The Historical Society of Floriana appreciates Vincent Zammit’s contribution ‘Monuments that trace Malta’s development’ (The Sunday Times, May 13).

The society is currently engaged in collecting any researched works, studies and memories on any historical aspect that sheds additional light on Floriana.

A trilogy of books written on Floriana by Emmanuel S. Tonna is worth reading. One of them has a full discussion on Il-Mall. Both Joe Bugeja and Olivier Friggieri gave other views of Il-Mall as the place of leisure during their respective time of their youths. Let me elucidate some other aspects of Floriana of my pre-war days.

The breach in the middle of the Mall had its military advantage in providing easy access for the many soldiers billeted in Lintorn Barracks. It provided easy access for the many service personnel that thronged the cabarets and bars, including Salvo’s. ‘Balzunetta’ was all agog every night when the Mediterranean Fleet was in harbour. The breach midway between the two entrances was of strategic importance because it facilitated the mobility of military personnel to the harbour down Crucifix Hill. The British administration always thought of the needs of the stationed troops in executing a project.

The part of the wall still standing after the war spelled no danger of collapse at all. In fact a polemic raged for some time. The Church authorities had objected to its removal. It had ‘sheltered’ the functions of the Church from the noisy activities of the cabaret shows and their loud music. Sometimes the brawling British personnel and the belligerent Maltese youngsters spoiled for a fight creating troubled tension among peaceful people.

However, that wall had long divided Floriana into two districts. It had separated an otherwise united community that idolised the church and the football team. That was before politics generated a new dichotomy, a division of party support. Nevertheless the destruction of the wall did erase the physical and social separation of one community. It led to a better integration among the Florianites.

Beside the entrances facing ‘Il-Biskuttin’ and Valletta, the Mall had others at the far ‘end’ of the garden. These faced the Wignacourt Monument with its horse trough and the entrance to the Argotti botanic gardens. However, I recall that the space on each side of the Mall gates and in between them was a small building complex. One room was the ‘shed’ of the permanent gardener and his collection of implements and tools. On the other side was a health clinic, known as Il-Berġa, the domain of Dr Edgar Cesareo.

In the middle between the two massive gates was the police station with its British characteristic of a lantern that shed a dim blue light. Unfortunately, the massive gates destroyed in the war were never rebuilt. Instead, when Agatha Barbara was Education Minister, the war destruction was obliterated by a hideous two-storey building that functioned as an extension of the nearby primary school.

One last memory deserves mention. The Floriana council under Nigel Holland perpetuated the memory of Pietro Paolo Floriani, the Italian architect of the Floriana fortifications, with an artistic monument. It stands conspicuously among the granaries of the Knights at the top of St Francis Street. The granaries in front of the parish church were built by the British.