Skip to content

NEIGHBOURHOODS: Fleetwood is a community defined by history

5378jz-fleetwood-neighbourhoods-1

From Panorama Ridge to Tynehead to East Clayton, Surrey has become home to practically dozens of cities within cities.

With more than half a million people living in Surrey, each of these communities has created its own identity.

With our  series we call "Neighbourhoods," we are coming to your area simply because we want to tell its story.

Recognizing that every one is unique, both in their character and in the challenges they face, our series will look at each area's struggles and triumphs.

This ongoing feature will showcase Surrey's dozens of neighbourhoods through stories, photos and video. Click on the map below to access them.

To share your neighbourhood's story, email us at edit@thenownewspaper.com with the subject line "Neighbourhoods."

 

————

 

FLEETWOOD — If you ask Rick Hart to describe his beloved Fleetwood, he’ll tell you, “it’s a little bit urban, and a little bit country.”

The Fleetwood Community Association (FCA) president said while the area’s not known for anything in particular, its history ties the community together.

“It’s interesting, because when you want to identify Fleetwood, that has been a big question, even with the city,” Hart said. But if you look throughout the neighbourhood, you’ll find stories of the area’s founder sprinkled throughout its core.

In 1907, Edith and James Francis settled on land near what is now Fraser Highway and 160th Street. A few years later, members of Edith’s immediate family, the Fleetwoods, joined them from England.

Arthur Thomas Fleetwood enlisted in the 47th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in 1915 and was sent to France. In 1917, Fleetwood died of wounds received in battle.

Edith, a founding member of the FCA in 1923, lobbied the provincial government to name her community in honour of her brother, so he would always be a part of the community that he resided in.

And today, that still rings true.

Sitting on a bench outside the Fleetwood Community Centre is a life-size sculpture of the man to whom the area owes its name.  The piece of the pioneer was commissioned by the association in 2008.

And just behind the community centre is Francis Park, named in 2011 after Edith to commemorate her contribution to the community. The park includes a walking trail, a playground as well as seniors’ workout equipment, to cater to the many seniors in the surrounding area.

“It’s kind of like a set of bookends,” Hart said of the two heritage projects. “You’ve got Francis, the sister, and the brother on the other corner.”

He said having those two pieces within a certain radius has a huge value.

“The park itself has changed the way the different ethnic groups within our community have engaged each other,” he said. “Walking around the perimeter, they get to walk together. Or if they pass each other they say hi. Barriers get broken down. If you’re in buildings, that doesn’t work.”

Hart is glad to see the effect the projects have had.

“Shopping centres don’t do it. Box stores don’t do it. So our vision is to find these things that will break those barriers down,” he said of the association’s work.

The FCA is also putting storyboards throughout Fleetwood’s town centre, telling the stories of other pioneer families from the area. Two are completed – one about “Pike Road” at the corner of Fraser Highway and 160th Street, and the other about “Swank Road” to be installed along Fraser Highway at 158th Street – with two more in the works.

“With the influx of diversity of immigrants, they are really grasping onto it,” Hart said. “It’s totally changed the dynamic of how people actually interact with each other. They’re people places. We really are driving toward our vision, trying to make this a people place, not just box stores where people come and go.”

NEW PUB HONOURS HISTORY

Last year, there was another historic addition to Fleetwood’s core.

The Joseph Richard Group took over the Fleetwood Arms Pub, located across the way from the community centre.

The company renovated the eatery, which was re-opened in March 2013 as Edith + Arthur Public House.

“With Edith and Arthur being the founders of Fleetwood, that’s what we wanted to do, we wanted to instill the sense of community because our location is very community-driven,” said general manager Jeremy Goertz. “We have the community centre right across from us, we have houses behind us, we had old folks homes over there, so that’s exactly why we went with it.”

Since opening last January, things have been going well.

“I think after two weeks we had regulars,” Goertz said, adding that the clientele covers the whole age spectrum.

“The demographic here is from 90 to 19. We have a lot of people, older moms and dads bringing their moms and dads because they pick them up from one of the (senior) homes in the area and bring them down for lunch.”

The pub will celebrate its one-year anniversary with a soirée on March 5.

“The neighbourhood is very friendly. They welcomed us with open arms,” Goertz said.  “We love people, we love craft beer and we love where we are.”

LEARNING FROM OTHER AREAS

While the area is rich in history, Hart said there’s work to be done yet. Since 2001, Hart said the association has worked with city planners to develop the Fleetwood Town Centre plan, to encourage economic growth balanced with preserving Fleetwood’s “uniqueness, history and character.”

He said the area has a “tranquil” feel, despite being within close proximity to many transportation routes, such as 176th Street and Fraser Highway.

“We’re really close to a lot of those nodes. We don’t have to go through what I refer to as the eye of the storm. We’re right in the valley area, where the (Agricultural Land Reserve) is, so we get the benefit of a lot of uniqueness,” Hart said. “Because it did not get heavily developed over the years, like a lot of areas such as Guildford, we have the ability, and have for years, to mature the way that we would like to.”

And the area has had the benefit of learning from some of the “errors” in other communities, he said, pointing to East Clayton.

“It was a UBC experiment idea, and I think that will mature over time, they’re going to solve it,” Hart said. “But we have benefited from that trial and error,” pointing to tandem parking and how that’s created havoc in terms of parking availability.

Hart said as it is now, Fleetwood has two big shopping centres. One at 160th Street and one at 152nd along Fraser Highway.

He hopes to see the 160th Street shopping centre branded as a “Fleetwood Village.”

“We know that Fraser Highway is an Achilles heel but it can also be an asset,” he said. “So we’re going to start building community plazas.”

When it comes to the 152nd Street shopping district, which has quite a few big box stores, Hart expects that area will be densified over the next few decades.

Since Hart’s involvement in the FCA in the ’90s, he’s seen development happen, but said the association has voiced its opinion on how and what types of development should happen. And before his involvement with the FCA, Hart was part of the Fleetwood Homeowners Association. That group fought initial design plans in the ’90s for the Surrey Sport and Leisure Centre.

“It wasn’t the fact that we were against development. We were young professionals and just wanted to participate,” Hart said.

And through the FCA, he’s kept his hand in the development process ever since.

“It’s not a right to develop in Fleetwood, it’s a privilege. We want them to help us build to make money, but not at the cost of the community. And we’ve been very successful at that.”

For more information on the Fleetwood Community Association, call 604-501-5056 or visit fcasurrey.ca. You can also email contact@fcasurrey.ca.

areid@thenownewspaper.com