An 89-year-old British architect has seen the island change. Michael Hirst has been staying at the same hotel since 1959 and has visited Malta on over 60 of the intervening years.

The iconic Phoenicia Hotel is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year – and for 63 of those, it has been frequented by Michael Hirst, who has visited Malta up to four times a year since 1959.

At 89, he has not yet tired of the changed island.

Back then, tourism was non-existent. Hirst recalls that whoever landed on the small planes at the airport – around five passengers a day – and stayed at the Phoenicia, one of the very few hotels around, would be listed daily in an article in Times of Malta on arrival.

Hirst, an architect, has witnessed Malta change over the last 60 years – and “not for the better”, he says bluntly, pointing to overdevelopment which he believes is unsustainable.

Still, he has not been put off about his established holiday destination and is scheduled to return next month.

Sitting in the lounge of the landmark and luxurious five-star hotel, which he recalls being an open-air courtyard, Hirst claims Malta is his “second home”. And anyway, he is not here to sightsee.

“Been there, done that,” he says. He can spot the differences too.

On their first stay, the Hirsts learnt they should visit the Hypogeum, so they “found the prehistoric subterranean temple in a street in Paola, knocked on the door and were allowed to go down the slippery stone stairs to see everything in our own time”.

It was a somewhat different experience from today’s full-scale exhibition centre constructed over the World Heritage Site, which requires three months of advance booking online to obtain timed entry for a brief visit – and no one is allowed to tread on the stone floor and steps, he points out.

It was on his way back to the UK from Africa in 1959, where he had been working, that Hirst first landed in Malta and stayed at the Phoenicia.

It wasn’t busy at the time, except for the Pegasus Bar, frequented by people in Valletta on business.

“No one came here then, unless they were connected to the Services, the dockyard, or had other business concerns,” Hirst recalls, wishing the Pegasus Bar would be brought back. It was “an essential piece of naval history” as officers would spend their free time there.

Apart from the Hypogeum visit, he recalls going to Ascot House on Kingsway – around until recently – to buy winter coats and fur boots as they had arrived in a chilly wet December from hot West Africa.

Hirst’s own personal ‘Malta Experience’ continued immediately after that first visit, when the architect, specialised in design for tropical climates, was employed by the War Office to work on what is now the derelict White Rocks complex in Baħar iċ-Ċaghaq.

Malta has changed... and not for the better

It was built to house Married Officers’ Quarters for the British Army and, ironically, is “still awaiting divine inspiration for redevelopment”.

Hirst spent the next four years on the job commuting between London and Malta – eight-hour-long flights with two refuelling stops en route – always staying at the Phoenicia, whose very few guests included the aircrew, constantly in residence.

A subsequent job in Tripoli meant he continued to stop over in Malta as tourism started to take off, and since the 1970s, he would return on holiday regularly, making great friends who also became – and still are – his “extended family”.

Some things never change. In 1966, he sat in the hotel courtyard watching England win the World Cup on an Italian station of a silenced TV, accompanied by BBC live commentary, after which “the entire population went wild in jubilation as if Malta itself had beaten the Germans”.

Sixty years ago, the hotel had poor heating in the guestrooms in winter and ventilation in summer was a problem due to the mosquitos. Giant cockroaches abounded and the food was so bad that “if you got through the trip without eating there, it would have been good”.

The back of the hotel was pounded by wind and rain, entering through the inadequate woodwork, creating a “carburettor” effect. But the Hirsts kept coming back for more – and they never needed to book in advance… except when too many rooms were out of service.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Phoenicia was the place to be for dinner dancing and good fare.

“If you stayed on after most of the diners had gone, Oscar Lucas would often start a memorable full-on jamming session.”

The Hirsts – “Phoenicia refugees” – were lured back to the hotel, a timeless classic reinvented for modern times, even after its two closures and as competing international brands started cropping up.

Unfortunately, it was the dinner dancing that was a casualty of the 1989 closure, Hirst says in dismay.

The property holds many happy memories and the Hirsts celebrated their Golden Anniversary there too.

Other milestone celebrations include 50 years of Phoenicia patronage in 2009, which was honoured by its then Irish owners, with a photo of his wife, Mary, in a bathing suit by the pool ending up on The Sun newspaper’s Page 3.

She passed away in 2016 and he now travels alone, upping the frequency of his visits and spending his solitary days by the pool in the mornings and writing his memoirs in the afternoon.

The Phoenicia has throughout its 75 years welcomed many a celebrity and VIP, from royalty to presidents and prime ministers, singers and movie stars, including Helen Mirren, Charlton Heston, Roberto Benigni and Joaquim Phoenix.

But Hirst nonchalantly says he would not have taken much notice if they were around.

Celebrity guests apart, his bond with the hotel continues through to the second and third generations of his family, his daughter Sarah and granddaughter Lara, who are “equally smitten with Malta generally and the Phoenicia in particular” and who sometimes accompany him… home.