Seongsu-dong is where I grew up. These days it gets called one of the coolest neighborhoods in Seoul. I still find that a little hard to get used to.
What I remember is a racecourse, and factories. Lots of factories. Which meant lots of scary-looking grown-ups, at least to a kid. That's the Seongsu in my head. Not latte art.
Horses first, then a forest
The racecourse was real, and it was big. Ttukseom got its racecourse in May 1954. The war had flattened the old one over in Sinseol-dong, so they needed a new home for the horses. It lasted 35 years. In August 1989 the races packed up and left for Gwacheon, south of the river, and the empty land eventually turned into Seoul Forest (opened June 2005). I've tried to picture a grandstand there among the trees. Can't do it.
The name goes back further. Ttukseom comes from dok, the big royal banner that went up when Joseon kings rode out here to hunt. It was a royal hunting ground, flat land by the river. So: hunting field, racetrack, factory town, park, and now whatever it is today. That's a lot of lives for one patch of the city.
Why so many factories?
Nobody drew a master plan for it, as far as I can tell. The Seoul Museum of History describes the industrial area as something that grew on its own in the 1960s. Monami, the pen company, moved in from Mapo in 1963. By the 1970s you had printing shops, car repair garages, auto parts makers and ironworks packed into the side streets.
And shoes. Korea's handmade shoe trade drifted over the decades from Yeomcheon-gyo to Myeong-dong and then east to Seongsu. When Kumkang Shoes moved its operations to nearby Geumho-dong in 1967, suppliers and craftsmen followed. VisitKorea says there were around 1,000 shoe factories here in the 1990s. Factories had already started leaving from the 1980s, though, and plenty of buildings just sat there, half used, waiting.
The morning the bridge fell
Seongsu Bridge, the one that carries the neighborhood's name across the Han River to Apgujeong, collapsed on the morning of October 21, 1994. At 7:38 a.m., in the middle of rush hour, a 48-meter (about 157-foot) section dropped into the river, taking a city bus and several cars with it. 32 people died and 17 were injured. Many of the people on that bus were students on their way to school.
Back in 1994, I remember our relatives all getting on the phone that day, calling everyone they knew in Seongsu to check they were okay.
Investigators later pointed to faulty welding, rusted joints and poor inspection and upkeep. It's a painful one to remember. It happened back when Korea's systems for looking after its roads and bridges just weren't good enough. The rebuilt bridge opened in 1997. A memorial stone stands near its north end, though it sits by an expressway and is hard to reach on foot.
Then the cafes came
The turn, if you want one building, is Daelim Changgo. It was a rice mill in the early 1970s, a warehouse from 1990, then from 2011 a venue for brand events (Chanel and BMW held events there). In May 2016 it opened as a gallery cafe. Time Out gave it credit for Seongsu getting called "Seoul's Brooklyn." Onion Seongsu opened the same year in a 1970s building that had been, at various points, a supermarket, a repair shop and a metal factory. Both kept the rough walls. The rough walls were the point.
Seoul picked Seongsu as an urban regeneration site in December 2014, and rents went up fast. Fast enough that Seongdong-gu, the district, passed Korea's first anti-gentrification ordinance, in effect from September 24, 2015. It didn't make Seongsu cheap. But it tells you how fast things were moving that a district office felt it had to try.
Now there's Yeonmujang-gil, the pop-up street. Dior opened a store there in 2022. In early 2024 the Chosun Ilbo reported a pop-up space going for about 100 million won a week. A week! In August 2025 the district said foreign card spending in Seongsu had reached 131.5 billion won in just the first half of that year, up 226.3 percent, after more than 3 million foreign visitors in 2024.
To get there, ride Line 2 to Seongsu or Ttukseom. Or hop off at Seoul Forest on the Suin-Bundang Line, a stop that only showed up in October 2012 (newer than most of the cafes' bricks, ha).
Seongsu on the map
The places from this post, plus a few spots locals know.
Tap a marker for a short note, or open the map in Google Maps. Positions are approximate.
Strange and new
So now it's a hip neighborhood for young people. Fine. I get it.
I don't live in Seongsu anymore. Every now and then my daughter heads over there to hang out, hunting for whatever hip new spot people are talking about. It gives me an odd feeling. The neighborhood I grew up in is now somewhere my kid goes for a day out.
And when I see a pretty cafe open in an alley I used to walk down as a kid, it feels strange. And new. Both at once. I don't have a neater way to say it than that.
Official info
Shop hours change, so check before you go (details as of 2026-10-16).
More from this blog
- Han River Picnic in Seoul: Ramyeon Machines, Delivery Zones and Rules
- HYUKOH Flea Market in Seoul: Shopping From Rock Stars' Closets
Is there a place from your childhood that turned into somewhere people line up to visit?
Top photo: an old factory building in Seongsu-dong 2-ga, new towers behind it (a company name on a far tower blurred). Photo: Yeji Yoo / Unsplash
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