White Rocks, Malta A once bustling apartment complex built in the 1960's by British forces now lays abandoned right outside Pembroke on the small island nation of Malta.
The History According to GuideMeMalta, the complex was originally built to be used as married officers quarters while the Island had British soldiers stationed there, and was eventually handed over to the Maltese government when the British troops left the island. https://www.guidememalta.com/en/the-story-behind-malta-s-ghost-complex-the-past-present-future-of-white-rocks Initially they tried to convert it into holiday accommodation, followed in the late 90's by foreign student housing, before eventually abandoning the project to rot, in true government fashion. Location Scouting While lazily day drinking at 11:15 in the morning at some shady beach-front restaurant in Paceville, I decided on safely exploring the island of Malta from the comfort of Google Maps satellite view on my phone. After a few minutes of this I come across a portion of the map slightly outside the city that looked like some old concrete village with an overgrown road coming in and out of it. Since this is Malta I'd normally just assume this to be one of the fancier up-scale hipster neighbourhoods, but when I saw it had a 'point of interest' icon I thought I'd at least give it a scroll through. I was pleased to learn that the place had been labeled 'Ghost Town' and that reviewers had been reporting sightings of 'weird old men' hanging around the area. Deciding I had to see this for myself I quickly slammed down my 4th beer for the road and hopped on my moped headed for White Rocks city. Arriving on Location The road there was treacherous for a mildly drunken mopeder, but after avoiding only few almost-collisions from notoriously bad maltese drivers I was impressed by my first impressions of the town. Behind the concrete barrier blocking off the main road, my eye caught a large painting of some 'greedy capitalist' riding a bull, with polluting chimneys behind him, fishing for euros.
Out of curiosity I decided to walk behind this house and found a small opening in the concrete blockages that have been put up to stop people from getting into the houses.
Not initially seeing any of these weird old men the internet kept talking about, I decided to keep walking down the road until I stumbled upon a fairly beautiful portrait of none other than the 'Don himself (which of course I forgot to photograph the day of, so this is one I took while I was passing through on some rainy day the week after).
I suppose the partially torn down bricks are supposed to symbolise some pro-immigration message about how walls can be knocked down or some shit. I don't really speak antifa, but it's a pretty well done art-piece. That being said, I wholly agree with the message I found painted on the next building over.
The main road eventually leads you to this long forgotten restaurant area. Don't bother trying to get in through the first hole or climbing on the roof like I did, there's a fully open entrance right around the corner..
On the other side of the building there's this big pool area where I assume big wig army officers would meet to discuss their K/D ratio and things like that.
The Future While the complex has sat dormant for over 20 years, the government has flirted with selling it to various investors. I know one offer has been accepted that plans to turn it into a luxury '7-star hotel'. If these plans will ever come to fruition is unknown though as the government has accepted, then denied plans to redevelop the property before.
34 comments
This looks amazing. Not saying it would be the most appropriate idea ever, but that would be an amazing place to play air soft or paintball scenario weekends in
Oh yeah the locals do it all the time. There's probably more airsoft bullets laying around than there are bugs on the whole property. There's also rumors of the place being used to host late night drinking sessions now that bars have been forced to close.
oooooh! hahah ok cool as long as im not the only delinquent. Honestly? I wouldn't doubt it for a second. I think anytime humanity gets cornered, we find away to sneak around XD. Thanks for the reply!!
lol, exactly what i was thinking @Thremos really looks like a great place to have wargames. 🔫 ___ well considering the fact that it "was" used by soldiers,💂 it looks fitting 😅
wonderful story
The idea is good looking idea
Yes Oshafu. Its a great write up indeed 😁
Really nice
Thanks for this information
Wow,,, all the picture are just awesome, amazing,,,
ooh, i really like the more thought out graffiti/street art 😆 those probably took quite a while to make 🎨
I love urbex photos (though I'm not really brave enough to do much exploration myself). I normally associate it with cold, miserable climates though - not sunny Malta! I guess you do get abandoned buildings everywhere. I've only been to Malta once and it was both smaller than I expected but also much more full of interesting things to see and do. You can't walk round the corner (or moped) without discovering something new.
Yeah with land being so limited private developers tend to scoop up anything they can get, but there's loads of sites that have just been left to nature like, all of Manoel Island, Jerema Palace, and this awesome hotel complex called Hal Ferh (35.932810, 14.347868). If you ever visit again and want an off day from touristing, you could easily spend at least a few hours exploring each of these.
I would love to go there if it's a guided tour or with a crowd of tourists. 😅 I don't think I can explore it alone. Nice arts/ grafitti. Would love to play hide and seek in a bright day because it's still beautiful. And maybe just how you beautifully take those shots. My son would love to play nerf gun and hide in there. Definitely! Thank you for sharing. Cheers
Haha, thanks! This place is actually more of a un-sanctioned park right now though, so I've yet to be there a day where I didn't usually always have a dog walker or a jogger within eyesight. If you're ever in Malta and want to check out a less traditionally touristy spot, I'd say give it a go.
You'll see me running like a scared rabbit in there haha. Yes, thank you I have to check their visa requirements or something to do with immigration. Do you travel often? Other than Malta, where else did you go that was really awesome?
goodjob
This is amazing
I was about to check where else you've been and upon checking this is your first article so have to subscribe for your coming post. 😄
This place looks cool, I can make this my Dance studio 🤭, I mean this is what a dance studio for those street dancers looks like and it's awesome, just like on the movie 🤩. And that art/grafitti, this is definitely my style 😎
Awesomepost
Nice
What a great view. To be honest, i like more that kind of artwork than those in the museum
Would love to visit then take some amazing photos
I love art.. But i guess, if it's too much.. It becomes ugly for me.. 😅
Me encantan las fotos de urbex (aunque no soy lo suficientemente valiente como para explorar mucho). Sin embargo, normalmente lo asocio con climas fríos y miserables, ¡no con la soleada Malta! Supongo que hay edificios abandonados por todas partes. Solo he estado en Malta una vez y era más pequeño de lo que esperaba, pero también mucho más lleno de cosas interesantes para ver y hacer. No puedes caminar a la vuelta de la esquina (o en ciclomotor) sin descubrir algo nuevo
I think if its renovated then repainted with graffiti, that place will be a blast
good information you given ,nice to read
I love to go on vacation to visit ancient countries
I love adventure bery well
I think its a good place for parkour enthusiast
Nice place. Wouldn't be bad to visit
Where was those photos located?
Wherever you look, the beauty of art is visible. there are spectacular and charming scenes. We can only compliment like that. People attract others by showing their art. And what a wonderful way to enhance the beauty of this place.