Ah, here we are – more visitors to the ‘museum’.”
It’s a common experience for brothers Noel and Silvio Farrugio who own Diana’s pub in the tourist hot spot of Qawra in Malta: seeing open-mouthed fans of the late Princess trying to take in the hundreds of pieces of memorabilia on show.
While it must be irritating for the pair when people walk in, gawp, take pictures then leave without buying a drink, the pub has been attracting locals and tourists alike for years. Set up by Noel and Silvio’s late father – a great fan of the iconic royal – in the early 1990s, it was renamed after Diana in 1996 and has stayed much the same ever since.
As well as an instantly recognisable sign featuring the face of the ‘People’s Princess’ drawing punters in, the walls inside are covered in memorabilia of Diana. Plates, photos, portraits – you name it, everything is there.
This Qawra pub is plastered with Lady Di memorabilia— (Saskia O’Donoghue)
Noel tells me that two prints of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip came from their grandmother’s house but the vast majority of the pieces emblazoning the walls and shelves of the low-lit space come as gifts from fans of Diana – and of the pub itself.
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The Farrugio family have long been stans of the princess, and it’s a sentiment shared with many on the island. Silvio tells me that, up until at least a decade after her untimely death in 1997, fans would lay flowers at the pub every year on the anniversary of her passing. The brothers say that the interest in her had dropped a little in recent years but the popularity of Netflix’s The Crown is bringing Diana – and this quasi-shrine – to a new audience.
And it’s not just those who come to take pictures with no intention of paying for anything who frequent the offbeat watering hole. The pub boasts a jovial atmosphere where local accents mix harmoniously with British, Italian, French and German voices.
She made the world a better place and I’m just so glad I got to be on earth at the same time as her
Sitting at an outdoor table in the warm November sun, Liam, a 28-year-old on holiday from Liverpool, tells me Diana means very little to him as he was a toddler when she died. He comes to the pub “for the food” – traditional British pub fare, including a ribeye steak dish and a bright orange cocktail named after, you guessed it, Princess Diana.
Two sisters in their sixties, though, say they come to Malta in the autumn every year – and never miss a chance to visit their favourite pub and pay tribute to their favourite royal. “She was an angel,” Pauline, the eldest sibling says, “She made the world a better place and I’m just so glad I got to be on earth at the same time as her.”
There is some confusion among patrons I get chatting to around whether Diana actually ever visited the pub – or indeed the island. In fact, it turns out she never did make an appearance but, I’m told, the Maltese love the British royal family on the whole – and the feeling appears to have been mutual.
Silvio, left, and Noel, right, outside their beloved Diana’s pub— (Saskia O’Donoghue)
From 1949 to 1951, the late Queen – then princess – made several visits here with her husband Prince Philip. The young couple stayed at Villa Guardamangia, just outside the capital Valletta, and by all accounts threw themselves into life in Malta. Philip was serving as an officer in the Royal Navy and, as Kenneth Gambin of Heritage Malta tells me, Elizabeth would frequently wave him goodbye from the Harbour Fire Command station at Fort St Elmo, or watch him play polo at Marsa.
The Villa is currently closed for refurbishment before it opens as a museum, but royal fans visiting the island need not miss out. Half an hour away, there is another Diana-themed pub: the Lady Di in the town of Sliema. This is, unlike Diana’s pub in Qawra, very much a joint for locals. Other than the sign out front, there is little indication that it’s an establishment paying tribute to the late royal.
I walk to the bar where a lump of anonymous meat and a man sharpening knives await. Ordering my pint of Strongbow I head to the outside seating area and get chatting to some regulars. They’re locals and – luckily – very friendly.
Frankie Cutajar opened the Lady Di on the day of Diana’s marriage to Charles in 1981— (Saskia O’Donoghue)
Kurt and Andrew are friends in their early forties. While they like the pub itself, it’s extra special to them being named after Diana. “Can you think of a better person to name anything after? I can’t,” says Andrew. They tell me about some of their earliest memories in pubs, as children in the 1980s and 90s. In every drinking spot, punters would cheers each other, saying: “God save the Queen”.
Frankie Cutajar opened the Lady Di on 29th July 1981 – the day of Diana’s marriage to Charles. He tells me that he met the Princess of Wales via a well-connected friend in London and promised her he would name his bar after her. And, clearly, he kept his word.
He even has a letter from Buckingham Palace giving him permission to christen the pub as such. “It’s somewhere in storage,” he says.
If Charles came here and asked me to rename the pub after Queen Camilla, I’d have to refuse – no one would come
The chatty customers, Andrew and Kurt, say “the vast majority” of Maltese people love the entire royal family – though that’s not the case for the pub’s co-landlord, Frankie’s son Keith. He’s worked at the bar “all his life” and still adores Diana. It’s a different story when it comes to King Charles though. When I ask him what he would do if he turned up at the door, Keith says, “I’d simply ignore him. He doesn’t deserve my attention”.
Back at Diana’s pub in Qawra, there’s a similar sentiment from Silvio. “If Charles came here and asked me to rename the pub after Queen Camilla, I’d have to refuse – no one would come.”
It seems as though the British royal family will forever be linked with Malta – but it’s Diana who continues to reign supreme on this Mediterranean island.
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