Old Sliema Photo Stirs Up Nostalgia For A Less Constructed Past
It is hard to tell, but these two photos are actually of the same street – Sliema’s Tower Road. And the stark contrast between the Sliema of the not-too-recent past and the Sliema of the present has elicited an outpouring of nostalgia on a Facebook group dedicated to the town.
“The old days looked much nicer,” one woman commented, while another man quipped that the development often being billed as progress is actually regress and another said the elegant buildings in street have been replaced by pigeon cages.
“Construction without any plan, form or character. The result of a nation that is slowly losing its social dignity,” a young man said.
“The loss of the beautiful would have been bad enough …. the fact that it is also so ugly is heartbreaking,” a woman said. “Still, I expect some were happy to see their bank accounts soar.”
“Overpopulated without sense and too much greed,” a woman bluntly said.
The blame game was out in force – with some blaming Maltese architects for lacking vision and the authorities for lacking foresight, and others pinning the blame on the former townhouse owners for selling their properties to developers.