Clubland in Malta

We did some sightseeing yesterday but the big question was where to have lunch.

I considered The Marisa Sports Club founded in 1901. Facilities include an open-air restaurant, bar, dining room, coffee and snack bar, TV lounge, reading room, 2 golf courses, mini-golf, polo, Kentucky-style trotting track and riding stables, indoor and outdoor cricket pitches, 18 tennis courts, 5 squash courts, gymnasium, outdoor swimming and pool bar (both Summer only), rugby, archery, soccer, billiards, cards, private beach and children’s play complex including bar, television, billiards and table tennis.

I like the way they are thinking, putting a bar in the children’s play area, but we didn’t go there.

We could have gone to The Malta Union Club, founded in 1826. Facilities include Bar, restaurant, cafeteria, billiards, squash, tennis, bridge, pétanque, skittles and darts. I couldn’t take my sister to a club with a darts board.

I plumped for Casino Maltese. Established in 1852, the premises it occupies were originally built by the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta in the seventeenth century and used as the accounting branch of their Treasury. The large entrance hall leads to a majestic staircase that branches off into two. The spacious landing on the first floor leads to the two main reception areas: The Ballroom and the Presidents Room. Beyond the Ballroom lies the Dining Room, overlooking St George’s Square and the smaller Princess Room so named after the visit to the club of Queen Elizabeth II when she was still a princess.

I didn’t know that Samuel Taylor Coleridge worked in Valletta, 1804 to 1806. In fact I didn’t know he worked at all. Of course he didn’t wander lonely as a cloud – that was Wordsworth – he was Acting Public Secretary of Malta with an office in what is now Casino Maltese. The club has impressive rooms, most helpful servants and an inexpensive menu. I expect they played pop music in the bar for our benefit. We were glad and felt privileged to have had lunch there.