Today, I will still be flirting with nostalgia but through a different avenue – what hotels, restaurants, bars and night clubs were like in Buġibba from the 1950s to the 1980s.
I remember most of Buġibba under cultivation, the very last building from the St Paul’s Bay side being a small hostel (Maltese Cross, later International) frequented almost exclusively by blond German teens lured to Malta by the Maltese Student Travel Department, the little empire run by Lino D. Abela, a forgotten pioneer of youth travel to Malta, and, incidentally, also of clandestine bikini and topless bathing.
Sea View Hotel, in Qawra Road, by David Moore.Malta’s foremost place names expert derives Buġibba from an Arabic personal name, still current in Malta in 1419: Nuzu Buiubbe. You would not guess that, looking at the tiers of hotels and holiday apartments where, up to quite recently, only cabbages and onions grew.
The Topaz Aparthotel in Ċensu Tanti Street, by David Moore.Hotels and eateries already promoted their business through postcards before World War I but their aggressive publication really started with booming tourism blasts after independence. Many leisure and hospitality establishments printed publicity postcards, mostly composite collages in gaudy technicolour.
The Carolina Hotel in St Anthony Street, by David Moore.
Flora Hotel in Pioneer Road, by David Moore.
Chez Francis Hotel and Apartments, in an unnamed Street off Qawra Road, by David Moore.
Some venues survive to this day, others have closed shop, others changed names. How many of the few Buġibba ones I am publishing do you remember?
La Mexicana Bar and Restaurant in an unnamed street in Pioneer Road, by David Moore.Some establishments proved forgettable, others grab remembrance for questionable reasons, like the Ceasar’s Palace Disco, then very in, owned by the Australian entertainer and TV star Rolf Harris who, in 2013, was jailed in the UK for almost six years, guilty of sexual abuse of several underage girls. One victim claimed Harris assaulted her in Malta. Disgraced and very ill, he died recently.
Promotion postcard for the Jeanette Holiday Complex in Triq il-Ħġejjeġ, by Artex Design.
The Copper Kettle Bar and Restaurant in unnamed street off Pioneer Road, by David Moore.
Four Seasons Holiday Complex in Triq it-Turisti, by David Moore.
Self-catering apartments in Buġibba, by David Moore.
Most Buġibba postcards have business details on their backs. Telephone numbers were still just four or five digits.
All postards from the author's collection
The Nelson’s Nightclub and Restaurant near Charella Hotel, by David Moore.