AirVenture 2000 — A Week Among the Aircraft and the Atmosphere
02 Gibraltar 1996
I returned to Gibraltar in 1996, once again drawn by its remarkable mixture of British familiarity, Mediterranean atmosphere and centuries of military history. Although the territory occupies only a small area, there is always something new to discover—from the crowded streets and fortifications of the old town to the harbour, airport and spectacular heights of the Rock.
By then the land frontier with Spain had been fully open for more than a decade, and Gibraltar felt rather less isolated than it had during my earlier visits. Nevertheless, it retained a character entirely its own. Red telephone boxes, English shop signs and British uniforms contrasted with whitewashed buildings, wrought-iron balconies and the brilliant southern light.
Much of the old military Gibraltar was still readily apparent. Grand Casemates, the surviving gateways and bastions, and the maze of narrow streets recalled the days when the Rock was first and foremost a fortress. The harbour remained busy with naval, commercial and pleasure craft, while aircraft arriving at the airport crossed one of the most unusual runways in Europe, squeezed between the frontier and the sea.
The photographs from this visit record Gibraltar before many of the later redevelopment projects altered its waterfront and historic buildings. They capture a place already changing, but still unmistakably the Gibraltar I remembered—a compact, fascinating community living beneath the immense and ever-present Rock.
A contemporary record of food prices during the Great Siege of Gibraltar, displayed in Gibraltar in 1996. The table, dated 23 October 1782, compares the prices fixed by a committee of officers with the much higher sums charged during the blockade. It provides a striking illustration of the shortages and severe inflation endured by the garrison and civilian population as the siege continued.
Victims of the Great Siege are represented in a stark life-sized tableau at Gibraltar’s City Under Siege Exhibition, photographed in 1996. The scene recalls the suffering caused by years of bombardment, food shortages and disease as the Spanish and French attempted to force Gibraltar’s garrison and civilian population into submission. The exhibition occupies the atmospheric stone chambers of the early-18th-century Willis’s Magazine.
A woman tends to an injured man in a life-sized reconstruction at the City Under Siege Exhibition in Willis’s Magazine, photographed in 1996. The scene illustrates the rudimentary medical care available to soldiers and civilians during the Great Siege, when repeated bombardments, disease and shortages placed Gibraltar’s population under almost continuous strain for three years and seven months.
An 18th-century Royal Artillery gunner stands ready with his firearm in a reconstruction at Gibraltar’s City Under Siege Exhibition, photographed in 1996. Gunners played a vital part in defending the fortress during the Great Siege of 1779–1783, serving the batteries that exchanged almost continuous fire with the Spanish and French forces surrounding the Rock.
A panoramic view north-west from the Upper Rock in 1996, looking across Gibraltar Airport’s runway towards the Bay of Gibraltar and La Línea de la Concepción in Spain. Marina Bay and its yachts occupy the sheltered water below, while extensive harbour breakwaters project into the bay. The photograph records the area before the later expansion of Ocean Village and the reclamation developments that transformed Gibraltar’s northern waterfront.
One of Gibraltar’s famous Barbary macaques surveys the airport and northern harbour from its lofty perch on the Upper Rock in 1996. Commonly called the “Barbary apes,” these animals are actually tailless monkeys and form Europe’s only free-ranging population of wild primates. Beyond the macaque, the runway stretches into the Bay of Gibraltar, with La Línea de la Concepción visible across the frontier.
An adult Barbary macaque carefully grooms a juvenile while the pair balance on a metal railing high on Gibraltar’s Upper Rock in 1996. The intimate scene illustrates the strong bonds within a macaque troop, with grooming helping to maintain cleanliness, reassurance and social contact between parent and youngster.
A Barbary macaque sits comfortably on the massive breech of a former coastal-defence gun on Gibraltar’s Upper Rock in 1996. Once part of the fortress’s formidable artillery defences, the redundant weapon has become an imposing perch for one of the Rock’s famously inquisitive macaques.
Former US President Ulysses S. Grant dining with Gibraltar’s Governor, Field Marshal Lord Napier of Magdala, during Grant’s visit to the Rock in November 1878. Grant called at Gibraltar as part of his celebrated world tour following the completion of his second presidential term. This reconstruction of the formal dinner was photographed in 1996.
General George Augustus Eliott, left, discusses the defence of Gibraltar with Sergeant-Major Henry Ince in a tableau inside the Great Siege Tunnels, photographed in 1996. During the Great Siege of 1779–1783, Ince proposed driving a tunnel through the Northern Face to reach a projecting position above the Spanish lines. Openings cut for ventilation were soon adapted as gun embrasures, creating one of Gibraltar’s most ingenious defensive works.
A colourful tiled mural portraying Catalan Bay in its earlier days as a small fishing settlement, photographed in Gibraltar in 1996. Boats lie drawn up on the beach beside the waterfront houses, while the steep eastern slopes of the Rock rise dramatically behind. Known locally as La Caleta, the village has long been associated with Gibraltar’s Genoese fishing community.
The lush greenhouse at Gibraltar’s Caleta Hotel, photographed during my stay in 1996. Dense tropical foliage, colourful ceramic pots and two caged parrots created a secluded garden atmosphere. One of the parrots had mastered an especially convincing imitation of a cat and would surprise passing guests by miaowing at them from among the greenery.
Merchant ships wait offshore beyond Catalan Bay, photographed from the Caleta Hotel in 1996. Gibraltar’s position beside one of the world’s busiest shipping routes made such views commonplace, with vessels pausing in the surrounding waters for orders, stores, crew changes or Gibraltar’s important bunkering services before continuing through the Strait or into the Mediterranean.
