Time to restore Sliema 19th century battery

The 19th century British Fort Cambridge battery will soon be reinstated to its former state as a tender to restore it will be issued in the coming weeks.

“Now that 80 per cent of works on the apartment blocks at Fort Cambridge are complete, we are going to start working on the battery’s restoration and a tender will be issued in the coming weeks to make sure the restoration works will be complete by the time residents move in,” a spokesman for Gap Developers said.

Fort Cambridge is on the site of the Cambridge battery in Sliema, built by the British in the second half of the 19th century. The battery was once the home of a 100-ton gun and was manned by 35 soldiers from the Royal Garrison Artillery.

An application was recently submitted to the planning authority to restore the battery, the developers said.

They researched British military archives in the UK and found plans of the Fort Cambridge battery to see what it looked like when it was built. Restoration works will be carried out by a team of skilled tradesmen and architects from TBA Periti, working under the supervision of architect Alex Torpiano.