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The “Maglio” was established by Grand Master Lascaris in 1656 to serve as a playground and promenade for use by the Knights. In fact, its name derives from a ball game called Palla a Maglio. During the British period, in 1805, Sir Alexander Ball ordered that it should be converted into a public garden. Thus the high walls surrounding the mall were replaced with low lying walls and it was embellished with trees and shrubs. It is interesting to note that the Mall is aligned with the St Elmo – Valletta entrance axis and onto St Philip’s Bastion. At one end of the public garden there are two arched entrance gateways crowned by armorial crests which were brought here from Pjazza Regina in Valletta when Queen Victoria’s monument replaced that of Grand Master Vilhena, which was also relocated in front of these two gates. However, another two gateways were pulled down at the other end of the garden in order to provide space for a school in the 1960s.

The Mall at Floriana was included in the Antiquities Protection List of 1932 and was scheduled by Mepa as a Grade 1 national monument as per Government Notice number 1082/09 in the Government Gazette dated December 22, 2009.