With the town celebrating its bicentenary HM Queen Elizabeth II visited on 29th April to officially open Pembroke Dock’s new Visitor Centre and Museum. This is housed in the newly refurbished Garrison (Dockyard) Chapel. This project is seen as the flagship of the Townscape Heritage Initiative which, with the help of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, aimed to regenerate Pembroke Dock’s economy by bringing historic buildings back into use and encouraging new businesses to settle in the town as well as increasing its attractiveness as a tourist destination. Unfortunately the project seems to have lost sight of the fact that businesses are not attracted by floorspace alone, and the town’s geographical distance from motorways as well as its lack of a fast train service, not to mention its inability to compete with other areas in terms of broadband speed, are contributing to a lack of takeup in the early 21st century in the same way that similar, though less technology-based, factors contributed to the closure of the Royal Dockyard in the early 20th century.

Crowds gather to greet HMQEII.