Dockyard heritage – an opportunity

As a visitor who has been coming to Malta since 1964, I have always had a great affection for the Cottonera heritage, with the excellent Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa especially outstanding.

Il-Maċina should be turned into a cultural and historic centre but the main lacuna is the old dockyard site in Cospicua.

This should be sensitively refurbished and made into a visitor attraction on the model of the £13 million rehabilitation of the Chatham Historic Dockyard, opened in 1613 and now re-opened as a museum and visitor attraction after the Royal Navy left the site in 1984.

Grand Harbour and the dockyard are a core attraction, between Luqa airport and Valletta.

It would give employment to many former dock workers who would have endless stories to tell to those connected with the navies of the world who know and love Malta and would love to come back to a Dockyard Renaissance, with films, exhibits to complement the Maritime Museum, a diorama showing Cottonera under siege and loans from the (British) National Maritime Museum and Imperial War Museum.

Chatham has on loan until December the Stanley Spencer paintings of shipbuilding on the Clyde and these exemplify the kind of attraction that a new Dockyard Experience could offer, with appropriate and timely EU funding.