Five-storey block on Hamrun High Street benefits from precedent

A five-storey block is eamarked on the site of the Camilleri Mobili furniture shop on the St Joseph High Street in Hamrun.

J&C Properties foresees the erection of four apartments on each overlying storey, while retaining the existing façade, and a ground-floor office.

The site is located in front of Hamrun’s urban conservation area (UCA) within a road prominently made up of traditional houses, in the vicinity of the Hamrun football ground.

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage said the building, dating from the early 20th century, forms part of a “very significant and legible streetscape largely characterised by two-storey buildings of similar character.”

The SCH has so far not expressed itself on the proposed development, asking for more information but called for a design that is “sympathetic to the existing building and surrounding context.”

But the streetscape where the five-storey block is being proposed is already prejudiced by a neighbouring development, separated from the proposed development by another two-storey building. The development, approved three years ago, comprises three new floors, of which two are receded. The approval was granted despite strong objections by the Hamrun local council, which warned of the “dangerous precedent within the locality and specifically within the street itself.” In fact, the latest application is proposing a building of the same height as the one approved in 2020.

The Superintendence then had also described the proposed height as excessive and one which “disrupts the existing predominant rhythm and proportions of the streetscape.” On that occasion the Superintendence made it clear that it would consider acceptable only the addition of one floor above the existing protruding cornice, to ensure that the building would be in “harmony” with the streetscape.