The VRP office

When I first set eyes on the empty house in lower Republic Street I was immediately told by one of my neighbours to search for something else. "The house is haunted! It has certainly haunted me for over 14 years."

VRP was initially set up in 1987 to be the executive arm of the Valletta Rehabilitation Committee. It took over all the projects in Valletta and operated from a house in Melita Street, now housing the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage. At the best of times VRP had five architects and close to 70 workers working on projecting and executing a large number of projects in Valletta.

Some of the best architects in the field started off at VRP or worked there for some time such as Konrad Buhagiar (who was also Director of Antiquities at the time), Claude Borg, Kenneth Zammit Endrich and even Jesmond Mugliett, among others. All the best workers in conservation today started off at VRP where they received thorough training in their skills.

The office was always small and sufficed only because we used a large space at Fort St Elmo for our stores and as ancillary space. We had to move out of our premises to make space for the Museums Department so I had to look around for a new office. For a time our administration was housed in Dar l-Annona which we also restored.

The government house in 210 and 212, Republic Street, had been abandoned for many years. The only reason why such a beautiful house was in this state when there are a hundred persons wanting every available room in Valletta was simply tied to the fact that the house was in a very poor state and because of its reputation of housing a ghost. The house has one small room which has a blocked door but a small open window which I left as it was. There were three rooms that were adorned as altars including one just next to this room. Two of the roofs had caved in. A very upper room was in ruins and almost non-existent.

The restoration of the house became one of our major projects in its own right. The house was restored by our own workers under the direction of technical officers Vince Centorrino and John Coleiro. It took somewhat longer than I had hoped but the results are there to be seen. The only part of the programme that was not done was the reconstruction of the uppermost ruined room.

The house is a typically beautiful Valletta town house. It has a small entrance leading to a big but not large staircase going up to the piano nobile. It has a large internal yard which is at a lower level and which I turned into a garden. (The below street level floor is beautiful but humid.) There are four rooms on the piano nobile, all with very high ceilings, three of which are very large rooms and the fourth containing the original flagstones.

My own office, which is also the main meeting room, is a very large room with a very large timber balcony. In the intermediate level is a mezzanin which has a separate entrance. There is a spiral staircase that connects all levels and which is the only access to the upper level.

The house incorporates as well what used to be a pastizzeria but is now a bar that, in spite of my continuous efforts, was never integrated back into the house, and a garage which has a very strong inclination to the lower level and which is also not in the hands of VRP. The house has some very interesting architectural features. The sculpture holding up the small balcony above the main door is beautifully designed. The house is very well lit throughout.

The house was restored its original state as much as possible. That is, we maintained the intonaco and tried very hard to find the right colours. We did not marble the staircase but left it in stone. We did not turn the wooden beams to varnish colour. We restored the original paving where missing.

Unfortunately I have no information about the ghost, known as is-Sur Tonin. The story was lost along the years. He has never bothered me, although when I am at the office late in the evenings or very early in the mornings, one does hear some unexplained rumblings!

The house has served us well. It is not only an office but an enormous archive spanning the 20-year history of the VRP and the 10-year history of the other two rehabilitation projects, the CRP and MRP. It has hundreds of files with all MEPA applications for these seven cities up to last April. It has files documenting all the many projects that have been done and also the many that have not been done. These include some very historic proposals for lighting designs as well as the original Renzo Piano designs for City Gate and the original model (which unfortunately was badly restored when taken to an exhibition to the UK some years ago).

The library is a treasure of reports and other related material about our projects which is constantly visited by both local and foreign researches. The library also has a large collection of books related to conservation, most of which were donated by myself.

The office was used for some very important meetings by international organisations. ICCROM held a meeting of the governing board of the ITUC programme. CIVVIH, the Historic Towns and Villages Committee, was re-established in a meeting held there. The Bureau of ICOMOS met there. ICOFORT, the Committee for Fortifications, held its first meeting there. The mezzanin was used at the local office of ICOMOS.

Spending so many hours in an office, close to 12 hours on many days, makes it very difficult to leave. I love my space at the corner of this very large and high room. But life moves on, even when one does not plan it that way.