Fleur de Lys townhouses kept out of UCA could face the axe

An application has been submitted to demolish two characteristic townhouses along Triq Fleur de Lys in Birkirkara, two blocks off the Carmelite church.

The applicant, a turnkey contractor, will not preserve the facade but replace it with a typical blokc with aluminum apertures – two maisonettes, six apartments over five storeys, one of which receded.

If approved, the application would result in an extensive blank party wall overlooking neighbouring properties.

Residents fear the application could have a domino effect on the entire row of townhouses stretching along the road. Neighbours also expressed safety concerns on the proposed excavation of a garage level in close proximity to their old houses.

The row of townhouses, characterised by traditional balconies, staircases and porches, dates back to the 1930s but enjoys the same level of protection as any other building in the development zone because they were not part of the Urban Conservation Area in the local plans of 2006. All Maltese towns and villages have protected village cores, but the concept was not extended to historical neighbourhoods like Fleur de Lys in Birkirkara and Qui-Si-Sana in Sliema.

The decision not to designate Fleur de Lys as a UCA was questioned by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, when in 2021 it expressed “surprise and concern that the streetscape has not been given the protection due to the area as an Urban Conservation Area”, over a request for a garage and change of apertures on another property in the same street.

The SCH had described the row of early 20th century houses as one “with evident architectural and aesthetic qualities” set within a streetscape of “evident significance and legibility”.