Sliema Overview
SLIEMA is translated into English as "Safety, peace" in the highly respected dictionary of Joseph Aquilina.
SRA intends to set up a LINKS and LOCAL HISTORY page here; please send an email to info@sra.org.mt if you are willing to have your website included or can recommend titles.
SLIEMA TODAY
The "list of persons entitled to vote for the election of Councillors" in Sliema dated April 2009 showed the following interesting summary statistics*:
Of Maltese Nationality
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4,943 Males
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5,678 Females
Of Other Nationalities (European Electoral List - LN 39 of 2004)
A settled population of 12,786 adults altogether! The SRA has been set up to help those who are interested to work together for a cleaner, healthier local environment find each other.
*the source document may purchased from the Department of Information or seen at the Sliema Police station
The Local Council elections held in June 2009 were the sixth such event. Details of the new councillors are available from the Sliema Local Council website along with much other useful information. SRA will work with the Local Council in an apolitical and co-operative manner.
The registered population will not reflect all those who live in Sliema since many are not registered voters - either because they do not qualify or because they have not made the effort to register. Many who own property in Sliema do not live here and are registered elsewhere.
The statistics above do not represent temporary residents, visitors and tourists who make heavy use of the local infrastructure. Of course, these numbers cannot reflect all those who visit Sliema to work, to shop or to socialise by day or by night.
SLIEMA'S ROOTS and SLIEMA BOOKS
The history of Sliema is quite well documented - see "Insights into Sliema" by Victor Gauci and the Maltese language book "Tas-Sliema fis-Seklu XIX" by Winston Zammit. There are collections of nostalgic photographs held by Richard Ellis in Valletta which include many scenes of Sliema and Sliema Creek. A fascinating series of books "Malta - Then and Now" presented by Joseph Bonnici and Michael Cassar can be bought or borrowed from the Public Library.
Many of the streets of Sliema date from the late Victorian period when the town was built as a quiet residential area with a fashionable promenade. The front then was very different to how it is today - for example, the Strand has been built on land reclaimed from the creek. There was major celebration when street lighting (non-electric) was eventually installed at Ghar id-Dud in the 1890s in response to the earnest petition to the colonial governor by the residents of the time.
Large areas of traditional town houses were built by early developers from 1870 on plots sold by the church on an annual ground rent - at least in the area near Prince of Wales Road (now Manwel Dimech Street). The boundaries of the early plots have become confused over time (by sub-division of the ground or changes to the overlying property). Perhaps this is the reason why it is not yet possible to register a property in Sliema at the Lands Registry unless it is bought direct from the Government.
It is not easy to research the records of Sliema given the change of street names and the conflict between maps from different periods. Most property deeds lack any site plans so the property sold is described in words only which is hardly precise! The heavy damage inflicted on Sliema by aerial bombing during the last war re-modeled some streets, but left the area as a low rise, low density town characterised by two-storey townhouses with gracious wooden balconies. How things have changed since...