Work began yesterday to demolish the arcades surrounding City Gate. Not before time. In looking at the photographs of the demolition, many were overcome with a feeling of “good riddance, and not before time”.

When one looks at City Gate and its surrounding structures, even the untrained eye can see that the 1970s development was an eyesore from day one. The style of architecture just did not go with Valletta’s baroque design. The forgiving will call it an Italian modernist design, those not so forgiving will call it fascist architecture or a replica of a Kasbah.

Whatever one thinks, thank God we are seeing the back of it. The works are in full swing now, and over the next two years we will look forward to Renzo Piano’s plans coming to fruition. While the debate is still raging about the open-air theatre which is planned to rise out of the ruins of the old opera house, one cannot deny that Malta, at large, will be glad to see the back of the horrendous entrance to Valletta.

But it must be put into perspective. The site of City Gate was never meant to be the main entrance to Valletta. If anything, it was a back entrance. The real entrance to Valletta was down at the Grand Harbour when Valletta’s life revolved around the sea. Water taxis ferried people to and fro, linking Valletta with the Three Cities just over the water.

So it is no wonder that anything that was built at City Gate looked out of place. And this is where Piano’s plan excels. The world-famous architect wants a minimalistic entrance to Valletta. The bridge is to be narrowed to discourage the conglomeration of animals, taxis, horrendous kiosks, bag sellers and general riff-raff which hang about the entrance. The gate itself will be ‘cut’ out of the original bastion curtain, thus removing any alien structures that always invariably make the entrance to Valletta look appalling. On this we agree.

But then again, one wonders just how the great architect’s mind works. With this concept, one would think that Freedom Square would be kept clear of obstruction. But this is not to be. The new parliament building will sit in that empty space. One is sure that Sig. Piano has a plan in hand and can see it all unfolding in his mind’s eye, and Malta is curious. The other side of the argument is that a brand new building to complement the baroque style of Valletta is certainly better than a car park or a Carnival arena.

The biggest bone of contention is the open-air theatre. There were many arguments. Some believe the old opera house should have been rebuilt. Others wanted a brand new closed theatre while others wanted a war memorial. In the end, the decision was taken to plump for an open-air theatre. Detractors have tried to denigrate the project by calling it a roofless theatre, but at the end of the day, this is what we are going to get, an open-air theatre. Once again, the jury is still out, but we are sure that the end result will be better than what we see today as we walk into the capital, a bombed out and pillaged ruin which scars the entrance to this grand old city. One just hopes that we will not look back in 30 to 40 years and think the same as we do now of the City Gate monstrosity.