There is an unfortunate death connected to the Anglican Cathedral in Valletta.

Building a cathedral for the Anglicans was a dream by Queen Adelaide who was recovering in Malta from illness.

Richard Titus Lankesheer, the superintendent of civil artificers, was chosen to design and build the new church. He was a cabinet-maker by profession but did not have any extensive experience in construction projects. At 36 years when he was appointed, he had very limited work experience.

He modelled his church in two well-known churches in Britain - St Mary-le-Strand and St Martin-in-the fields both in London.

Work started in earnest but soon he found himself in conflict with the local building traditions and craftsmen; he did not understand local construction methods and especially the qualities of the local limestone. By January 1841, worrisome "cracks, splits and crushings" began to emerge.

Lankesheer died suddenly in March 1841 and many speculated he had committed suicide. Work on the new church was suspended.

This was when the person who is the protagonist of this book was roped in to salvage a desperate situation. This was William Scamp.

Scamp was born near Barnstaple in 1801. As a young student architect, his early work included work commissioned by his architect uncles in Windsor Castle. Later, he designed a church at Upton-Cum-Chalvey near Slough.

In 1838, upon completion of works at Windsor Castle he joined the Admiralty facilities at Woolwich Dockyard. He then participated in the design and construction of several facilities for the Royal Navy, from home bases like Deptford, Devonport, Pembroke and Portsmouth to naval establishments in Bermuda, Gibraltar and Malta.

In Malta his first work took place in 1841 when he accompanied the Director of Engineering Works to the Admiralty on a visit to Malta to report on the physical state of the naval facilities.

Scamp was to stay in Malta for four years, during which he was involved in three major projects - the first drydock in Malta at Cospicua, the naval bakery in Vittoriosa and lastly St Paul's Anglican Cathedral in Valletta.

When the British took over Malta, they inherited from the Order three important sites - the ship-repairing, shipbuilding and ship-fitting operations of the knights.

The first one, in Vittoriosa, the Galley Arsenal was no longer fit to be used by the Royal Navy and its buildings were demolished and replaced by the naval bakery, today's Maritime Museum.

Dockyard operations thus moved out of Vittoriosa to Galley Creek, renamed Dockyard Creek. In 1844 the Admiralty began to build Dock Number One.

In 1841 Scamp came to a conclusion that the ideal location for the drydock should be at the head of Dockyard Creek.

The Cospicua residents protested against this proposal as would deprive them, they said, from their only access to the sea. In 1841 they petitioned Governor Bouverie but their protests went unheeded. On 28 June 1844 the foundation stone was laid. It was Scamp who designed and built the two coal vaults on either side of the dock and also the workshops that supplement the workshops built by the knights as well as the central block, the smithery and even a small foundry. The dock was first opened on 5 September 1848.

Following the completion of Number One Dock, Scamp built ancillary facilities, mainly stores and machine rooms. Scamp was probably one of the first architects, says Dr Thake, to introduce the use of cast-iron as an integral part of a structural system. However, several workshops and stores built by him were destroyed in World War II.

Then Scamp was directed to build a new naval bakery instead of the old small mule-driven one at Floriana. New machinery had been brought over and Scamp suggested the proper site for the new bakery, the former Order's Galley Arsenal in Dockyard Creek.

The principal structure was built between 1842 and 1845. The use of wrought-iron and its application to beams were still at an experimental stage at that time so it may have been that the original cast-iron beams were found to have been inadequate to their purpose.

The English architectural historian, HM Colvin, says the naval bakery is an "outstanding example of sound utilitarian yet dignified architecture". Although primarily a utilitarian building, its external appearance is not that of an industrial building. Scamp adopted some architectural elements in use in other waterfront buildings, such as the continuous balustrade.

It is also worthy to note that the clock tower in the Naval Bakery in Vittoriosa is replicated in two towers that Scamp later built in Bermuda.

But it was the Anglican cathedral that was to be the crowning glory of Scamp's work in Malta.

Scamp was not yet in Malta when Lankescheer died but he was soon roped in to help the cathedral project from becoming an embarrassing display of incompetence.

Scamp and his colleagues found that walls near the altar were not supported from below while the wall on the other end was insufficient to support the pediment and the cornice over the columns. Hence there was the need to make substantial changes.

One immediate change was the relocation of the tower from a central position over the church to its present separate position, detached from the main building. Another change regards the position of the altar. Scamp had originally wanted it at the south-west end with four side doors to provide cooling during the hot summer. But the bishop of Gibraltar insisted the altar should be at the north-east end.

Scamp had created a semicircular exedra behind the main doors to accommodate the altar he wanted to site in that area. It was because of these changes that the cathedral has a portico without an entrance, a church without a principal door.

The former sanctuary at the north-east end was later substituted by the baptistery as the baptismal font was moved from the opposite end of the church.

Scamp's first priority however was to undertake the remedial works to stabilize Lankesheer's defective structure. He meticulously recorded all the plans, purchasing of building materials and weekly salaries of the workforce. These are minutely recorded in two volumes which are to be found in the archives of the Wignacourt College in Rabat.

Scamp was particularly critical of Lankesheer's original design but also of the working habits of the local workmen. An expense incalculably created by the habitual indolence and incapacity of the workmen could have been avoided had the original design been in accordance with the customs of the island.

Anyway, work resumed and proceeded steadily but on 29 September 1842 part of the cornice on West Street collapsed and killed three Maltese workmen. Scamp's accounts show the payment of £15 as compensation to the victims' families.

The collegiate church of St Paul was formally consecrated by the bishop of Gibraltar on 1 November 1844 even though the spire had not yet been completed.

Scamp and his partner Harriet Wynder had a daughter born in Malta on 11 April 1844 and she was christened Adelaide Frances Melita seven months later in the first baptism to be held in the new church.

Scamp was recalled from Malta in 1845 to assume the post of chief assistant to the Director of Admiralty Works. He was involved as an engineer in various naval establishments such as Devonport, Keyham, Chatham, Pembroke and Woolwich.

In 1860 Scamp was commissioned to assist in the project for the extension of the Grand Harbour towards Il-Menqa. During this period he also played a consultative role in the implementation of two other projects in Malta - the Valletta market hall with its iron work and the lunatic asylum at Wied Incita.

 

BOX

Conrad Thake

William Scamp (1801 - 1872)

Midsea Books

2011

110pp