Additional floors proposed on Dingli Circus landmark

Heritage activists are alarmed by the proposed internal demolition and an additional two floors on top of a townhouses in Dingli circus in Sliema.

The application presented by developer Alan Bonnici is proposing the internal alterations to the existing house, the construction an additional full floor and a receded unit. This new development if approved will house an office, a shop and three  overlying apartments.

Objecting to the proposal heritage active Edward Said warned that the development will compromise the largely preserved streetscape of Dingli Circus, one of Sliema’s few historical piazzas set within the Urban Conservation Area.

The  house in question at the corner between Triq il-Creche and Pjazza Sir Adrian Dingli forms part of a triptych of dwellings designed by the highly acclaimed architect Giuseppe Cachia Caruana. According to Said all three landmark buildings  are worthy of scheduling.

Cachia Caruana designed many terraced houses in Sliema  particularly in  Victoria Junction, Dingli Street and Tower Road.

An article published in the Architect describes his style as “clearly eclectic, incorporating the vernacular, colonial and hints of Art Deco” yet generally attaining “an unpresumptuous syntax”. The property is also in close vicinity to the listed Ursuline convent on Creche Street.

Din l-Art Ħelwa is also objecting to the application in question warning that it will negatively impact the streetscape, which contributes to the heritage value of its context, resulting in breaches of established planning policies. 

Over the past decades a number of developments have been approved in the vicinity including a six storey block housing the meat and eats butcher and an apartment block  whose  blank party wall overlooks the building earmarked for development. But a large portion of the  square itself has remained largely intact.  Heritage activists fear a domino effect on the remaining intact buildings in Dingli Circus.