Pembroke Dock - Today

Today

Today, much of Pembroke Dock's maritime industry has gone. The town continues to cope with high unemployment, limited public and private investment, and decaying buildings. The town briefly had a resurgence in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the arrival of large superstores such as Tesco and Asda, the development of the Cleddau Business Park, and also the local Peacocks. Like many high streets in provincial towns, Pembroke Dock has struggled especially with the closure of Woolworths at the end of 2008. At present the main retail street (Dimond Street) has several large retail units closed down.

The town was badly affected by the collapse of ITV Digital in 2002, the firm having based its main customer call centre there. Much of the green field land set aside for development of the Cleddau Business Park remains unsold and undeveloped. The Pembrokeshire Technium was built and opened in 2006. Although the initial interest was slow the first major uptake on this facility began in 2009 when Infinergy built a wind farm in the local area and based its local office in the centre. There has been approval given by Pembrokeshire County Council for a new yacht marina to be built alongside Front Street but work has yet to begin.

The two Martello Towers remain: one is now a local museum, while the other is in private hands and has been converted for residential use and is largely intact. The dockyard wall is substantially complete and has been recently repaired by experts with dressed stone and lime mortar. The two listed hangars built to house the Sunderland flying boats used to guard the Western Approaches, have been rebuilt and now used for other uses. The Dockyard church has been rebuilt using Objective One funding from the European Union and has yet to find a new use.

A few buildings on the site of the old Llanion Barracks still stand. The Officers' and Sergeants' Mess once used as council offices is now occupied by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The Original Guardroom remains and is now residential accommodation and a listed Victoria Powder Magazine remains set in to the coastal slope which is accessible from Connacht Way. The old parade square has recently been converted for housing.

Pembroke Dock is well-served by the A477 trunk road which runs from St. Clears through Pembroke Dock and over the Daugleddau estuary via the Cleddau Bridge to Haverfordwest. It also has a ferry terminal from which ferries sail twice-daily to Rosslare in Ireland. The service is operated by Irish Ferries.

The town is served by Pembroke Dock railway station.