Ikseon-dong

You're in Ikseon-dong, one of the oldest surviving hanok neighbourhoods in Seoul. Unlike Bukchon, there are no grand noble houses here: these are small homes packed tightly together, built for the urban middle class a century ago.

1Jeong Se-gwon's neighbourhood

In the late 1920s the developer Jeong Se-gwon bought land here from former royal residences, such as the mansion where King Cheoljong was born, and divided it into dozens of plots. In 1929 and 1930 he put up these hanok in series, with a layout of alleys that has survived almost intact.

2Singers, teahouses and bars

In colonial times pansori singers, performers of traditional narrative song, lived here alongside writers. Later the area was known for its yojeong, upmarket restaurants where politicians and businessmen met: in one of them, Ojinam, contacts between North and South were prepared in 1972. Then came decline, and for years it was a forgotten corner, also a refuge for bars of the gay community.

In the mid-2010s young entrepreneurs began opening cafés in the empty hanok, and the neighbourhood became fashionable almost overnight.

Today some critics say tourism and rising rents have pushed out the old residents. Stroll slowly and look up: the roofs tell the story better than the shop windows.

3What to look for

• The tiled roofs almost touching above the alleys.
• The inner courtyards roofed over with glass and turned into rooms.
• The width of the alleys, sometimes little more than a metre.