Reading the Room: A Short History of the Colonial Townhouse in Gzira
Gzira’s older streets are best read from the pavement, one front at a time. The town grew late and fast, from fields between Msida and Sliema into a working suburb within a few decades, and its townhouses carry that history on their faces: Maltese limestone, Maltese balconies and Maltese doors, with the ironwork and fanlights of a colonial century layered on top.
In short: a typical Gzira townhouse front gives you a limestone façade, a gallarija on stone corbels, tall timber apertures, wrought iron and a fanlight over the door. Morrison Court is one of them — but honestly described, it is a 1920s façade that we kept and restored, with an entirely new building behind it. Here is how to read the street, and exactly what we kept and what we rebuilt.
How to read a Gzira front
Start at the top and work down. The stone is Globigerina limestone, honey-coloured when cleaned and greyer with age. If there is a gallarija, look at what holds it up: the stone corbels underneath are saljaturi, often carved, and frequently the oldest surviving part of the front. The apertures — the timber window-and-door assemblies — are tall and set deep in the wall, with timber panels inside to control the light and a long turning bolt, the spanjoletta, to close them.
Then the iron: balcony rails and stair balustrades, worked and curled. Then the door, usually solid timber, and above it the fanlight, a half-moon of glass that lights the hallway when the door is shut. And on many Gzira houses, a name instead of a number. Our townhouse explainer goes into each of these in more depth, and our history of Gzira explains how the town itself came to be.
What we kept, and what we rebuilt
It would be easy to call our building restored and leave it at that. It would also be misleading, and we would rather be exact.
When we bought it, it was a two-storey townhouse. We kept the façade and restored it completely: the limestone masonry, and the saljaturi that carry the balcony. The front door we kept too — it is about a hundred years old and was still in very good shape — though we made it easier to use. We removed one of the two steps that led up to it and, rather than moving the door, extended it downwards to meet the new threshold — so the same door is now a little taller than it was, finished along its new lower edge with a brass kick plate, and far easier to step through. Inside, we lowered the ground floor to gain height, while the façade kept its original height so that it still sits in line with its neighbours on the street.
Some things on the front are new, made the old way. The gallarija had long since been replaced with aluminium, so we had a new one built in timber by traditional methods. The apertures are new timber too, rebuilt in the traditional style with internal panels and spanjoletta locks, and quietly upgraded with double glazing and thermal breaks. The wrought iron is all new, custom-made for this building rather than salvaged. And above the door, the fanlight carries a gold-leaf sign of our own.
Behind the façade, everything is new. The rest of the old house was taken down and rebuilt from the ground up — new floors, new structure, five self-contained apartments, and a modern lift running the full height of the building. That is what made the two bathrooms, the second rooms, the insulation and the quiet possible.
Why keep the face and rebuild the house
Because the street matters as much as the building. A Gzira street is a shared composition of façades, and each one that disappears behind a new block weakens the whole. Keeping ours, and putting back what had been lost from it, was our contribution to the street. Rebuilding behind it was our contribution to the people who would live inside: modern performance, real accessibility, and rooms designed around how a stay is actually lived.
We think of it less as a restoration than as a reimagining — an old face, honestly kept, with a new house designed behind it.
Frequently asked questions
What architectural period is Gzira known for?
Most of Gzira's older townhouses date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the town grew from fields into a working suburb between Msida and Sliema. Their façades combine Maltese limestone, timber balconies and apertures with wrought iron and fanlights.
What should you look for on a Gzira townhouse façade?
Limestone masonry, a gallarija carried on stone corbels called saljaturi, timber apertures with internal panels and a spanjoletta lock, wrought-iron balconies, a fanlight over the door, and often a house name rather than a number.
Is Morrison Court a historic building?
Its façade is. The 1920s limestone front, its corbels and its hundred-year-old front door were kept and restored, and the gallarija, apertures and ironwork were newly made in the traditional way. Everything behind the façade was rebuilt new, including the floors and a modern lift.
Morrison Court is five self-contained apartments in a reimagined 1920s townhouse on Triq San Albert in Gzira — behind the same front door the building has had for a century, a step taller than it used to be.