Chicago Typewriter|Ikseon-dong — The Alleys That Kept 1930s Jongno

Jongno 3-ga Station empties you into a grid that used to run the city. Ten minutes north the grid breaks into Ikseon-dong.

VisitSeoul sent Chicago Typewriter pilgrims here because the hanok roofs still sit low enough to remember Gyeongseong. Han Se-joo, Yoo Jin-oh and Jeon Seol keep walking Jongno in both lives. In 1930 this district was the political and literary centre. In 2017 the same lanes hold cafes and tiled courtyards. The series needed streets that had not been scraped clean for a tower.

One hundred and eighteen houses here were built before the 1930s. Seoul later listed the block as a hanok cluster, which is why the alleys survived the redevelopment that ate the next neighbourhood over. Stand at the corner of Supyo-ro 28-gil and you get tiled eaves, a narrow sky, and the sound of dishes from a courtyard kitchen. That is the scale the writers moved through when they were still alive the first time.