Sewoon Sangga is a seven-block megastructure built in 1968 as Korea's first large-scale mixed-use development — apartments, shops, a rooftop garden and an elevated walkway stacked over what was briefly the most technologically sophisticated address in Seoul. Around it, Euljiro's tool, lighting and print alleys are still working craft streets, though a redevelopment plan running since the mid-2010s has been clearing them block by block. What you can still see is a district in the middle of disappearing, not a finished one.
What Sewoon Sangga Actually Is
Sewoon Sangga (세운상가) runs for about half a kilometer through the heart of old Seoul, connecting Jongno in the north to Toegyero in the south — a single complex of interconnected buildings, seven blocks long, built in 1968 as Korea's first large-scale mixed-use development. It was designed by architect Kim Swoo-geun at a moment when Seoul was rapidly modernizing, and the original complex included apartments, hotels, shops, cinemas and a rooftop garden, all connected by elevated walkways. For a brief period in the early 1970s it was the most technologically sophisticated address in Seoul — reportedly the place where you could source anything if you knew who to ask. When it opened, it was described as a city within a city.
Today it's harder to categorize: too old to be fashionable, too embedded in the city's history to demolish, too weird and specific to ignore.
The Demolition Plan That Failed
By the 1990s, Sewoon had aged badly. In 2003, the city announced plans to demolish it as part of the Cheonggyecheon restoration project. Then the plans stalled. Then a new mayor arrived. Then they stalled again. Sewoon survived not through any grand preservation decision, but through bureaucratic delay and changing political winds — and what emerged from that delay was an unexpected second life, not a restored original.
Walking the Deck
The original design included a continuous elevated pedestrian walkway running the full length of the complex. Most of it still exists. Most people don't use it. From the deck, the view is disorienting in the best way:
| Direction from the deck | What you see | Why it's interesting |
|---|---|---|
| North (toward Jongno) | Euljiro workshop district rooftops, traditional shophouses | The industrial Seoul that still exists |
| South (toward Cheonggyecheon) | The restored stream, modern apartment blocks beyond | The Seoul that replaced what was here |
| Along the building | The Sewoon complex itself, interconnected blocks | How the megastructure fits the city |
It's one of the few places in Seoul where you can see the city's different eras stacked simultaneously. The deck is accessible from multiple points along the building; the clearest entry is from the main Sewoon Sangga building near the Jongno 3-ga side. 청계상가 (Cheonggyecheon Sangga), the adjacent block to the south, is architecturally similar and slightly less renovated — worth a quick look if you're already up there.
What's Inside: Electronics and Makerspaces
The core commercial identity of Sewoon — the one it's had since the 1970s — is electronics. Not consumer electronics in the way Yongsan is: Sewoon's specialty is components, parts, repair and custom fabrication. Need a specific transistor, or a replacement motor for something discontinued in 1994? Someone in Sewoon can help. It's a B2B ecosystem that happens to be open to the public, and the community that formed around parts-trading and improvised manufacturing in the 1970s–80s became a kind of informal R&D hub — not glamorous, but deep in specific knowledge that in some cases only still exists in the vendors who've worked there for decades.
Starting around 2017, the city government introduced makerspaces, fabrication studios and creative businesses alongside the existing electronics vendors. The result is an unusual coexistence: a laser cutter operation next to a wire-winding specialist, a graphic design studio two floors above a shop that's been repairing electric motors since 1983. Inside the complex is also a small museum dedicated to the history of electronics in Korea, with a particular focus on Sewoon's own role — not large, but genuinely interesting, the kind of museum that gets made when the people who built an industry decide to document it themselves.
Euljiro's Craft Streets
The area now called Euljiro (을지로) has carried several names. During the Joseon dynasty it was known as Donghyeon (동현), or Gurigae — "Copper Hill" — reflecting the metalworkers who already congregated there. Japanese colonial authorities renamed it Hwanggeumjeong (황금정, "Gold Town"). After liberation in 1945 it was renamed for Eulji Mundeok, a 7th-century general who repelled a Sui Chinese invasion; the current name dates to October 1, 1946.
The concentration of craft industries here wasn't accidental — it followed the logic of physical proximity. A printer needed metal type; a metalworker needed tools; a tool supplier needed storage. Each trade attracted adjacent trades, and the density became self-reinforcing. By the 1970s and 80s, Euljiro and the Cheonggyecheon corridor had become what Koreans called a "one-stop supply chain" — you could walk from one end to the other and source almost anything manufactured.
| Alley | What's there |
|---|---|
| 공구거리 (Tool street) | 500+ hardware and tool shops, supplying industry across Korea and beyond |
| 조명거리 (Lighting street) | Lighting showrooms — commercial, industrial, decorative |
| 인쇄골목 (Print alley) | Offset printers, binderies, paper suppliers — still active |
| 타일·도기거리 (Tile & ceramics street) | Building material suppliers; connects into the Sewoon ecosystem |
The tool street connects naturally into the Sewoon Sangga electronics ecosystem covered above — many vendors supply both sides. A continuous elevated pedestrian walkway (공중보행로) also runs above street level through part of the Euljiro corridor, linking commercial blocks into the same Sewoon system and the same postwar impulse to build cities vertically. Most Seoulites don't use it; most visitors don't know it exists. 대림상가 (Daelim Arcade), a multi-floor commercial building in the Euljiro 4-ga area, sits between the Sewoon electronics ecosystem and Euljiro's general merchandise — electronics components, small manufacturing supplies and repair services occupy most floors, a quieter but functionally similar space to Sewoon.
A Neighborhood Being Replaced in Real Time
Walking Euljiro, you encounter a compression of Seoul's architectural history that exists almost nowhere else in the city: on one side of a street, a five-story 1960s commercial building, ground floor crowded with hardware, upper floors occupied by small manufacturers; on the other side, construction hoarding, cranes, a tower going up. From the mid-2010s, city planning identified central Euljiro for large-scale residential redevelopment. Craft businesses that had occupied the same addresses for decades received notices to relocate — and artists and young businesses that had moved in precisely because rents were low found themselves displaced alongside the metalworkers and printers. What you see walking Euljiro now — demolition sites beside operating craft shops — is the physical evidence of that unresolved argument. Come while you still can.
Cheonggyecheon: The Stream Under the District
| Period | What happened |
|---|---|
| Joseon era | Open stream through the capital; periodic flooding and government dredging projects |
| Post-Korean War (1950s–70s) | Slum settlements along the banks, 100,000+ residents. Stream covered 1958–1977; an elevated highway was built above, and craft markets formed on the newly covered surface |
| Restored (2005–present) | Elevated highway demolished 2003; a 5.84km linear park opened 2005, running from Cheonggyecheon Plaza near Gwanghwamun eastward |
The covering of Cheonggyecheon in the late 1950s is directly connected to the formation of Euljiro's craft districts. As the stream disappeared under concrete and the elevated highway went up above it, the newly covered surface became commercial frontage — hardware shops, tool suppliers, lighting vendors and printers took up positions along what had been a riverbank. When the highway was demolished and the stream restored in 2005, those same businesses stayed put. The river came back; the hardware shops never left.
Today Cheonggyecheon is a linear park running from Cheonggyecheon Plaza — marked by a spiral sculpture near Gwanghwamun — east for nearly 6 kilometers. Walking from Gwanghwamun eastward takes you past Joseon-era restored bridges and a tiled mural depicting a royal procession, with the jarring contrast between the restored water and the craft districts immediately above the embankment walls. Start at Cheonggyecheon Plaza (청계광장), accessible from Gwanghwamun Station (Line 5) Exit 5, and walk east. Along the way, 조명거리 (Lighting Street) is worth a stop on its own — floor-to-ceiling showrooms of every conceivable lighting fixture, domestic to theatrical, with serious buyers from across Korea sourcing major projects there.
Practical
Nearest station for the craft district is Euljiro 3-ga (Lines 2 & 3); Sewoon Sangga's deck is easiest to reach from the Jongno 3-ga side (Lines 1, 3 & 5). Both sit inside the same 15-minute-walk cluster as Jongno, Ikseon-dong and Nakwon Arcade — see which old Seoul neighborhoods are worth visiting for a route that strings all of them into one day. If you're coming from the hanok-café side of things, Ikseon-dong is the natural starting point before you head into the craft streets.