Photo: Leoboudv · CC BY-SA 3.0In a 25 km circle around Surrey: 10 places on the registers
From Surrey, look 14 km away, to Langley, for the nearest place of the highest designation. Few homes are old by the census: 4.3% before 1961, against 18%. Outside the boundary but close by, there is one more.
Surrey’s area holds 2 top-tier places within 25 km
They stand in 5 towns, Langley, New Westminster and Hastings-Sunrise among them. The record reaches back to 1839 with Fort Langley, 18 km away. Among them are 5 provincial or municipal listings, 3 Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings and a National Historic Site.
The 10 nearest, within 25 km
| Holy Trinity CathedralListed in a community heritage register · 1902 · 10 km away, in New Westminster |
| Saint Andrew's United ChurchListed in a community heritage register · 17 km away, in Langley |
| Big HouseRecognized Federal Heritage Building · 1958–1960 · 18 km away, in Langley |
| Servants' QuartersRecognized Federal Heritage Building · 1957–1958 · 18 km away, in Langley |
| Fort LangleyNational Historic Site · 1839–1841 · 18 km away, in Langley |
| StorehouseClassified Federal Heritage Building · 1840–1872 · 18 km away, in Langley |
| Northeast BastionRecognized Federal Heritage Building · 1957–1958 · 18 km away, in Langley |
| Hastings ParkProvincially Recognized Heritage Site · 1888 · 23 km away, in Hastings-Sunrise |
| Minoru ChapelHeritage designation · 25 km away, in Richmond |
| Bloedel ConservatoryListed in a community heritage register · 1969 · 25 km away, in Riley Park |
Just outside Surrey: 1
| Peace ArchNational Register of Historic Places listed place · 100 m outside the town |
Most of what stands within 25 km of Surrey dates from the years since 1946
Places as far as 25 km from Surrey, not in it, dated by the first construction year on their records.
Fort Langley, in Langley, goes back furthest, to 1839. The bars count 9 dated places within 25 km. 2 predate Confederation.
A growing town: 11% of Surrey’s homes went up from 2016 to 2021, against 4.1%
Surrey’s largest group of homes, 37%, went up from 1981 to 2000. 32% of Surrey’s homes were built from 2001 to 2015, more than the typical town’s 15%. Homes built from 1961 to 1980 make up just 15% of Surrey’s, against 27% in the typical town.
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
Surrey and its neighbours
| Town | People | Places | Highest | Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surrey | 703,531 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Sullivan | 42,135 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Fleetwood | 63,957 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Newton | 51,222 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Panorama Ridge | 36,473 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Surrey Centre | 16,482 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Johnston Heights | 30,971 | 0 | 0 | — |
Surrey in brief
Its housing is young: only 4.3% predates 1961, against 18% in the typical town.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- The tiers. Three tiers: the top for National Historic Sites, classified federal buildings and Québec’s classements, a second for the other federal designations, a third for provincial and municipal listings.
- The grade. History is described, not graded, for every Canadian town.
- Provincial and municipal lists. Outside Québec, provinces’ and municipalities’ heritage registers aren’t open data; their places are known only through Wikidata items with a register number, and only those with an encyclopedia article get a page.
- People and events. National historic persons carry no place in the open file. They appear on a town’s page when born there (same name, same birth and death years) or when a historic place inside it carries their name and its record names them with their dates; national historic events don’t appear.
- Protection. Being on these registers doesn’t mean a building can’t change. Federal designation commemorates; protection is provincial or municipal, and those lists aren’t open here.
- The federal register. The federal list is complete and open: Parks Canada’s directory for the designations, the Canadian Register of Historic Places for what each one is and why it matters.
Questions about Surrey’s history
How many historic places does Surrey have on the registers?
The registers have nothing inside Surrey; Holy Trinity Cathedral, in New Westminster, is 10 km away.
How old are the homes in Surrey?
4.3% of its homes were built before 1961, against 18% in the typical Canadian town.
Why might a heritage building in Surrey be missing here?
Only federal designations are fully open outside Québec. 5 more listings in Surrey are known through Wikidata alone, so they are counted, not paged.
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada (Parks Canada).
Sources: Parks Canada, Directory of Federal Heritage Designations · Canadian Register of Historic Places (federal extract) · Wikidata (CC0) for map points, other names and articles · Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (homes by period of construction). Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).