The Maltese grande dame hotel with a star-studded history

Once a favourite of the late Queen, the Phoenicia is celebrating 75 years at the glamorous heart of island life. Juliet Rix reveals its fascinating past

It has often been said that the then Princess Elizabeth was particularly happy in Malta, where she lived as a newlywed naval officer’s wife between 1949 and 1951. One of the places that brought her that happiness was the then-new Phoenicia hotel.

Opened in November 1947, Malta’s grande dame hotel is celebrating its 75th birthday this month, and to mark the occasion, old photographs of previous guests have been rescued and restored – including of Princess Elizabeth and her husband Philip.

The Phoenicia is a sprightly three-quarter centenarian, its art-deco Palm Court and restaurant bright after recent refurbishment, its expansive terrace and long garden tucked beneath the towering bastion walls of Malta’s Unesco World Heritage site capital, Valletta, built by the Knights of St John.

“There can’t be many five-star hotels built on 16th-century fortifications,” says Konrad Buhagiar, Executive Director of AP Valletta, the architects responsible for the hotel’s recently reshaped harbour-view swimming pool and new spa. “You would – rightly – never get a permit for it now… and works here are always held up by archaeological finds”.

Malta’s first luxury hotel wasn’t just a favourite of the late Queen. Prince Philip frequented its Pegasus bar (with naval officer colleagues) and King Charles has been coming here since childhood.

It was built by Lord Strickland and his second wife Margaret (née Hulton – British owners of Picture Post). Gerald, Lord Strickland was a British Baron and a Maltese Count, Westminster MP and Prime Minister of Malta. He divided his time between two ancestral homes – his mother’s, Villa Bologna in Malta (villabologna.com), and his father’s, Sizergh Castle in the Lake District (nationaltrust.org.uk).

In 1939, when it was almost complete, it was commandeered by British forces and hit by 100 German bombs in April 1942, when Malta became the most bombed place on earth.

When hostilities ended, Lady Margaret summoned back the hotel’s Scottish architect, William Binnie to rebuild it, and Lord Louis Mountbatten and his wife were among its opening-night residents.

They were just the first of many big names to stay, ranging from statesmen and women to film stars including Alec Guinness, Gérard Depardieu, Oliver Reed and more recently Helen Mirren and Rachel Weisz. “I remember him staying with us whilst filming Gladiator,” says Neville Cardona, the Phoenicia’s longest-serving member of staff, of Reed. “He was a frequent visitor to our Club Bar and used to crawl out in the early hours.” Unfortunately, during the last days of filming, he died in the Pub in Valletta, still open and since nicknamed “Ollie’s Last Pub”.

The hotel was sold to Charles Forte in 1966 and has had a number of owners since, but despite inevitable ups and downs it has retained its place in the affections of the Maltese. Independence in 1964 was celebrated with a ball here attended by Prince Philip, and the hotel has seen generations of Maltese celebrate their weddings, baptisms and other key events.

Family connections remain: Andrew Strickland, after a stint at Scotland’s Gleneagles, was recently appointed director of sales and marketing.

“My father worked here, my grandfather worked here, my uncle and aunt worked here, and Mabel is my great great aunt,” he says, “so it does feel like coming home.” One of his greatest pleasures, he says, is watching the Maltese, “from all walks of life”, arriving for special occasions, “all dressed up and taking pride in coming to a Maltese icon”.