This photo has been making the rounds on Facebook and email. It is a snapshot of a particular corner of Paceville circa 1982. It’s an incredible photo that threw me back to my childhood. I was a seven year old Pacevillian there and Paul’s Punch Bowl was the place that served great pizza’s (if I remember well it was the calzone that rocked). The restaurant grew and grew – as did the rest of Paceville – and would soon incorporate one of the first nightclubs and gamesroom in that road: the Ace of Clubs.
At this time Paceville was not so much the hedonist den of sin that we know today. Opposite the Punch Bowl you can see a the house with the green door. I remember the people who lived in that house. I remember the fruit and veg man who would sell his wares right beside that wall. This was a Paceville that had lost its residents from the forces (Mintoff, remember?) and had gradually surrendered large parts of its terrain to a Libyan community of sorts that used to terrorise the likes of myself and my brother on our errands to the Queen’s and London stores (Ball and Paceville Streets respectively).
You could still stroll through the back parts of the Hilton and enjoy public land all the way to the sea. Saint George’s Bay was a rough gap between the new buildings on the Dragonara promontory and the Sunday football paradise that was the area just below Pembroke. You could count the shops on Saint George’s Road between Wembley and Paul’s Punch Bowl on one hand. There was Bonello Store (grocer – now a kitsch jewellery shop next to Maxims) and there was the Scotsman. I’m not sure whether Peppermint Bar existed as yet. My memory fails me on that account.
Back to the photo. The snapshot is taken from a position that would place the photographer close to the steps of what is now Burger King (corner of Saint George’s and Wilga) – to be more exact it is probably taken from just outside what used to be the Gelateria Lungomare. Paul’s Punch Bowl is now mainly Stiletto’s (until some time ago Rock Cafe). The white wall is now Plush and I am not sure what the vegetable vendor would make of all the shishas though I am sure the Libyans of Ball Street would not have minded.
3 replies on “On the Street Where I Live(d)”
Burger King used to be the Coconut Grove, and before that was the Federation of Professional Bodies (with a sort of parapett where BK’s entrance steps are now). The former Gelateria Lungomare was Blushes then – the haunt of the cool in 1982. Paul’s Punch Bowl was NOT cool at all, but your’re right about the pizza.
Peppermint Park opened c.1980 it was a very small bar at first.
The most striking thing is the sky in the Paul Punch Bowl picture, if you know what I mean.
I remember Paul’s Punch Bowl was instead of the house with the green doors. I grew up in Guardamangia and it was another town invaded by the Libyans.