In addition to the church, there is a pier, an athletics track, a small supermarket, Royal Mail post office (and probably Internet connections), snack bar, hotel, police station, Georgetown Hospital, dental surgery, and a library.

Following Napoleon's death in 1821 (and George III's the year before), the settlement found a new role as a supply, maintenance and victualling base for the West Africa Squadron.

Local tufa was used for building, but everything else had to be imported (including seeds, vegetables and fruit trees, all of which were cultivated on Green Mountain to supplement the locally-available diet of turtle meat).

By 1829, a small jetty had been constructed, as well as several buildings on what is now the Regent Square area, close to the sea (including a hospital – the West Africa Squadron was notoriously prone to sickness).

[2] Before long, to meet the demands of an increasingly steam-powered navy, coaling facilities were built, and in 1862 a 'steam factory' housing metalworkers, a machine shop and smelting works, was established.

Fort Bedford, which dates from 1903, still has some Victorian cannons, as well as a pair of BL 5.5 inch Mark I naval guns that were originally fitted to HMS Hood.

It usually hosts local athletics events as well as being the start of the annual dew pond race from sea level to the highest point on the island on Green Mountain.