White Rock

White Rock is a distinct city of roughly 5 square kilometres and about 22,000 residents, surrounded by South Surrey on three sides and Semiahmoo Bay to the south. Its 470-metre wooden pier — one of the longest in Canada — the Marine Drive promenade, and the iconic namesake glacial boulder anchor the waterfront.

Above the beach, the city rises steeply through Marine Drive and the Uptown centre at 152 Street and Thrift Avenue. It is pedestrian, view-oriented, and denser than surrounding South Surrey, with a strong mix of established single-family blocks, low-rise condos, and new high-rise development in the Town Centre.

The name comes from a 486-tonne glacial boulder that has sat on the beach for thousands of years, long a landmark for the Semiahmoo people and later for the earliest settlers. White Rock grew as a summer resort after the Great Northern Railway arrived along the waterfront in 1909, and incorporated as a city in 1957 after separating from Surrey. The wooden pier was rebuilt after a windstorm in 2018 and remains the defining civic image of the city.