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Surrounded by Gyeongbokgung(Palace), Changdeokgung(Palace) and Jongmyo Royal Shrine, Bukchon is a residential area in Seoul with countless hanoks(traditional Korean houses). Bukchon is also called "the street museum in the urban core," having many historical spots and cultural heritage sites.

Since it is located in the northern part of Cheonggyecheon and Jongno, people named this area Bukchon, which means northern village. In the village, there are Gahoe-dong, Songhyeon-dong and Samcheong-dong, whose names evoke affection in all Seoulites.
In the late Joseon Dynasty, the large-scaled land was partitioned into small-sized building sites for social and economic reasons. It is assumed that the hanoks closely located together in the village were rebuilt around 1930. The change in the form of hanok reflects the densification of the society due to the urbanization began at that time in Korea. Bukchon’s historic sites and cultural heritages from the Joseon Dynasty to modern times tell visitors the history of this area.

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One of Bukchon’s main characteristics is its topography - the shape of land and watercourses. It has lowlands in the south but the level of the land becomes higher and steeper in the north. And it has four valleys. As water flows along with the valleys, the main roads of this area run parallel with the watercourses. So the roads tend to stretch from the north to the south.
Even today you can witness this on streets like Samcheongdong-gil, Gahoe-ro, Gyedong-gil and Changdeokgung-gil. During the Joseon Dynasty, Bukchon was the town of high circles because of its geographical features.
The village was the heart of Hanyang (Seoul’s former name) between Gyeongbokgung (Palace) and Changdeokgung(Palace), and it was, and still is, located on the south side of the mountains, stretching from Bugak to Eungbong. According to a census in 1906, 43.6 percent of the 10,241 (or 1,932 households) in Bukchon were from noble families or high-ranking officials. From this, we can see that upper class gathered in Bukchon at that time.

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Bukchon’s reputation as the village of influential men continued on into the enlightenment and Japanese colonial periods. During these periods, leaders of the enlightenment party, such as Park Yeonghyo and Kim Okgyun and powerful people such as Min Daesik (the son of Min Younghyui) and other members from Yeo Heung Min family, were the residents of Bukchon. Moreover, anti-Japan activists also resided in Bukchon.

As urbanization aggravated the housing shortage in Seoul, partitioning development driven by the private sector emerged and private housing developers wanting to get profit from house selling also emerged. After 1912, different kinds of hanok built on the partitioned land spread rapidly in this area because of a serious housing shortage. 31, 11 Gahoe-dong and 35 Samcheong-dong, which are today’s representative hanok-concentrated areas, were created at that time when private developers built and supplied these reformed hanoks on a large scale. The houses of this period are called reformed hanoks because they are different from those before in terms of the materials used, such as glass and western tiles, the partially standardized ground planes, and the horizontal system.
After the Independence, reformed hanoks were built steadily until the early 1960s.
When you see an aerial photograph taken in 1962, almost all the buildings in Bukchon were hanoks except for schools and public facilities.

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In the 1970s: Schools' Transfers and Big Changes in Bukchon's Landscape

Starting with the Yeongdong district development project in the late 1960s to the early 1970s, the Gangnam(south of the river) area in Seoul began. As people in the Gangbuk(north of the river) area started to move out to the Gangnam area, schools in the Gangbuk area were also transferred to the Gangnam area. For instance, Kyunggi High School was moved out in 1975 and its former buildings then became the Jeongdok Public Library. Whimoon High School moved out in 1978 and Hyundai built its fifteen floor office building on that land in 1983.
After Changduk Girls' High School moved out, the Constitutional

Court of Korea was built at that place. As you can see in these examples, the transfer of schools and construction of new buildings are the key factors in changing the landscape of Bukchon.

In the 1980s: Receding Preservation of Hanoks and Constructing Bukchon Street

As the changes in the landscape spread rapidly, hanoks needed protection. After discussion about designating the area a folklore district in 1976, the protection of hanoks started in 1983, when the village was designated as the fourth type urban aesthetic district. However, the protection at this time was led by the government without any agreement or discussions with the residents. While the ground rules were to protect hanoks in the village, government destroyed many of them in constructing Bukchon Street. That is why the residents were not impressed with the protection effort.

In the 1990s: Destruction of Hanoks and the Spread of Multiple Housing Buildings
Following the residents’requirements to ease the construction standards, Seoul Metropolitan Government eased some restrictions. For example, the height of newly constructed buildings changed from one floor to three floors (less than ten meters) in May 1991. After that, the construction of multiple housing buildings spread rapidly. When the municipal office eased the restrictions on the height of buildings around the main palace Gyeongbokgung from ten meters to sixteen meters and allowed people to build multi-floor buildings (under five floors), the construction of multiple housing buildings spread in Wonseo-dong and other areas in Bukchon. Needless to say, it polluted the view of the village.

In the 2000s: A New Attempt to Beautify Bukchon
As Bukchon’s landscape was changing because of the rapid destruction of hanoks and the construction of multi-floored buildings, the Seoul Development Institute (SDI) came up with a new policy to beautify Bukchon in a response to the requirement from a residents group promoting a project for the beautification of Bukchon. In the policy making process, the SDI worked with the residents, experts and governmental officials. Different from the previous unilateral restrictions, the new policy made Hanok Registration Data voluntary and encouraged people to mend their houses with government support. Since 2001, the policy has been beautifying Bukchon actively through improving living environments and boosting the attraction of it as a residence.