The opening of the revamped Bisazza Street brings back memories of its origins in the early 1950s.

It was then the height of the post-war reconstruction and the lower part of Tower Road was a bottleneck. The first option was to widen it, which was considered expensive. Then someone hit on the idea of duplicating it, turning it into a one-way street, using relatively cheap back land to its northeast. Someone even suggested that the traffic flow would then be inverted so that the fuming buses would not go uphill in the old narrow street which had a number of butchers’ shops.

I came into it very marginally when I was drafted in the Public Works Department (Reconstruction Section) as a student architect and civil engineer in my final year in 1952.

As I had been awarded the Government Travelling Scholarship by the Royal University of Malta and was shortly due to proceed to London for post-graduate studies, the director, Carmelo Micallef, did not assign me to any section but kept me as a personal assistant. One of the odd jobs he gave me was to go over the route of the proposed road and inspect the premises affected for purposes of the eventual assessment of compensation and provision of alternative accommodation for the tenants. I was not quite 22 and very green, and the director told me very clearly: “If there are any arguments just come back”.

I started with the very modest tenements of Tower Lane and Fawwara Lane. The very first door I knocked on I was met by a young woman with a baby and when I told her the purpose of my visit she exclaimed: “And about time too. These hovels are not fit for human beings!” She accompanied me to the next door, where I had a similar reception.

The two of them then accompanied me to the next door and I ended up with a large following of cheering women who were offering me drinks and wanted to carry me on their shoulders! I had to stop them from ringing the doorbells of the tenements that were not affected by the road, to the great disappointment of their tenants.

The houses on Tigné seafront were a different kettle of fish. One was the office of the Sliema Ferries Company and the others were owner-occupied houses, where I had a much cooler reception.

I remember one house in particular, towards the Nazarene Church, which was not actually affected by the road, but it had a largish L-shaped garden, turning towards the left. The tip of this included a shed used as a workshop, and this projected into the route of the road. The lady of the house was very house-proud and was attended by a maid with a white pinafore. She nearly fainted when I told her that we would have to snip off a piece of her garden. When I showed her which part she started dancing with the maid and they both hugged me and I had to drink some vermouth to celebrate the news of the elimination of her husband’s workshop which apparently had long been a big bone of contention!

Bisazza Street was constructed by the late architect Joseph Attard and opened, I believe, in 1954. I was marginally involved in its surfacing and resurfacing. No big deal.