Seoul City Walls had been demolished between 1898 and 1961, which was especially accelerated during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945). The city walls and their surroundings were developed into modernized urban tissue over the colonial period; s...
Seoul City Walls had been demolished between 1898 and 1961, which was especially accelerated during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945). The city walls and their surroundings were developed into modernized urban tissue over the colonial period; still, it is as if they are somewhat different from other cities' walls. When Japan began forcedly governing Korea in 1910, the voluntary modernization of the Joseon dynasty . started from the late 1800s . had been gradually changed in to the compulsory and Seoul had transformed into a typically modernized colonialcity. And the urban elements of old Seoul were devaluated as anachronistic relics and reorganized into a new order under the name of modernism. Devaluated as old remains and as a symbol of pre-modern, the city walls used to be the Seoul' s boundary for a long time were torn down in order to expand the urban area. And the expansion of the urban space caused by the population growth in Seoul between the 1920s and the 1930s was based on the demolition of the city walls. The destruction of the city walls was a universal phenomenon in the process of modernization of old historical cities and seemingly had the same reason in the case of Seoul. Still, the difference that the demolition of the city walls were not voluntarily required as a part of urban changes but forced by the colonial ruling power brought about the Colonial Modernization in Seoul.
This study introduces two purposes: the one is the process of the demolition of Seoul City walls different from that of other cities' and the other analysis of the change in surrounding urban tissues. According to its character and meanings, the destruction of the city walls can be classified into two periods: the first is from 1898 to 1924 and the second from 1925 to 1961. The demolition of the city walls in the former period (1898-1924) happened in the procedure of the cancellation of the city's borderlines, called as Dosung and Seongjeosipri, and in that of the change from the existing urban space to the colonial. As Seoul in the late Joseon Dynasty was changed into a commercial area, Seongjeosipri was added into the urban area. Despite the extension of the urban area, the city walls remained as physical entity representing psychological space division. The demolition of the period was concentrated in between Donuimun(Saeangil) and Sungnyemun(Tae pyeongro ) areas. In this situation, the physical wall traditionally demarcating Seongjeosipri from Dosung was disappeared. However, since its surroundings have been urbanized from the late Jeseon Dynasty, in spite of the demolition of the city walls, a huge change of urban tissues was not taken place.
The realization of the colonial urban structure was usually achieved by the reorganization of street network and the emergence of colonial facilities. The colonial ruling power during the early Japanese Forced Occupation attempted to
transfigure the existing street network into the modern. Established in 1912, the Urban Improvement Project in Gyeongseong was to organize modern street network in the expanded urban structure and was dominated by widening the existing roads and building new roads. The city walls between Donuimun (Saeangil ) and Sungnyemun(Taepyeongro ) areas were taken down owing to widening and building roads connecting the existing urban are to the new, which has something to do with the fact that the Seoul railroad station and Yongsan were the center of the Japanese. It was reorganized from the existing urban structure of Jongro into colonial urban structure of the Japanese. Also, the unique architecture, Joseonjingu, built only in Japanese colonial cities was one way of realizing the colonial urban structure. The ultimate target was to abolish the city walls of western part of Namsan between the existing urban structure and the new, and to create Joseonjingu , and to consider it as the symbolic center of the colonial urban structure.
The demolition of the city walls in the latter period (1925-61) was largely completed in the period of Japanese colonization. The period had been developed in a different way from the previous period. The demolition of the city walls was simultaneously developed with the expansion of the urban structure and accompanied with the change of surrounding urban tissues. The destroyed area was concentrated in between Heunginjimun(Wangsanro) and Namsomun(Hannamro). The most of it was made up of fields, forests and farms, except the surroundings of Heunginjimun and Gwanghuimun . The expansion of the urban structure established new roads in these regions and urbanized the surroundings. In the developed regions, the modernized urban tissues unlike the surroundings of the previously demolished city walls were organized through the grid system and residential districts with the new facilities such as a stadium, a hospital, a school, etc were introduced.
Seemingly, modern facilities and the establishment of new type of residential districts were to mean Seoul's modernization; however, the demolition of the city walls in the period was not differentiated from that in the previous period. Here is an obvious purpose of the colonial ruling power, called as the expansion of the urban structure through the development o f the east side of Seoul. For this reason, the abolishment of the city walls was necessary in order to attain someone’s goals. It has been determined not by social consensus but by unilateral decisions. After the liberation from the Japanese colonial rule, the demolition of the city walls was not that different. It was only changed from the colonial ruling power to dictatorships by president Rhee Syngman and president Park Chung-hee. They destroyed even the rest of the walls of Namsan to build pavilion, APAL(Asian People's National Anti-Communist League center), Namsan tower which come to the present.
The region between Wangsanro(Heunginjimun) and Donghoro(Jangchung gymnasium) had been simultaneously progressed the destruction of the city wall and the change of urban tissues. In the area, modern urban tissues were developed. Most of the city walls were destroyed. And it is not easy to find the exact location of the city wall due to the severe change of the local topography. Nevertheless, urban tissues generated from destruction of the city wall during the 1920s and the 1930s partially remained until now. This area can be classified into Dongdaemun stadium (Gyeongseong stadium) area(1 at Euljiro 7ga area), Jangsugil area(37 at Jangchung- dong 1ga area), Donghoro area(110 at angchung-dong 1ga area) according to the period of development, the way of the demolition of the city wall and responses to the city wall of new urban tissues.
The site near Dongdaemun stadium was a large subdivision made by Hullyeondogam and Hadogam stationed in the past. With building Dongdaemun stadium in 1925, its surrounding urban tissues have been changed. Dongdaemun stadium was stood after the removal of the city wall. The ground track derived from the city wall is a boundary of 'dong' but regardless of it, buildings occupy several subdivisions and modern facilities are the same. A gentle slope from Ogansumun to Gwanghuimun was changed to a flat by the construction of the stadium. And, the trace of the city wall covered with buildings remained veiled.
Before 1930, inside the city wall, there were small factories and, outside of it, a public cemetery and illegal houses scattered. However, constructing Jangsugil and developing housing development made the urban structure near Jangsugil . In this area, the housing site with small subdivision was developed. It has brought about land alteration and cut the city wall and ridge near Jangsugil . The body of the city walls remained in the south part of Jangsugil but rest of it was damaged on the process of housing development. Now, it is used as a terrace (an elevation) of settlement as the feather of city wall. The current body of city wall exists in the area resulted from the privatization of the city wall hard to approach from a road. The area around Donghoro was developed lately and formed as a residential district with large scale lots in 1930s. It was the region that a garden Baekhwawon, cemetery and poor residences were divided by the city wall. Unlike Jangsugil, the roads allowing the approach to individual spaces by vehicles were built in the residential district around the area. For this reason, the whole residential district was built as a gentle slope. Donghoro facing south cut the ridge and the city wall connecting to Namsan. The city wall of northern Donghoro was destroyed completely in the process of building the residential district and roads.
The Demolition of Seoul City walls was not merely forgotten as old historical remains where their functions were lost, but has a close relation with the modernization of urban structure and the expansion of urban space. Even though the Demolition of Seoul City walls had its own purpose, it was accomplished by the colonial ruling power, not by the voluntary will, as opposed to other cities'. Whereas although European city walls were also torn down, they stayed in someone's memory, it is not easy to find even the traces of Seoul City walls. Characteristics of the colonial modernization through out the Japanese Imperial Period are all in the demolition of the city walls and the change of the surrounding urban structure. For this reason, even if the analysis of the surroundings of the city walls is somewhat narrow and local, it sufficiently shows the procedure of the modernization Seoul has experienced.