Dae-o Bookstore
Secondhand bookstore turned cafe in a preserved hanok, run by the same family since the Korean War.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Dae-o Bookstore in Seoul opens in 1951, right after the Korean War, when a man named Cho Dae-sik cleared out a storage shed and started filling it with secondhand books, with his wife Kwon Oh-nam beside him at the till. It follows the Seochon neighborhood that once held about ten used bookstores like it, and the choices Grandmother Kwon faced after her husband died around 2012 and people urged her to sell. Look for the low tiled roof and narrow courtyard where a pop star once posed for an album cover.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Insadong-gil Street
Pedestrian street of antique shops, art galleries and stationery stores in a historic Joseon-era quarter.
Ikseon-dong Hanok Village
Alley-woven district of nineteen-twenties hanok houses turned into cafes, boutiques and bars.
Seochon Hanok Village
Warren of low tiled-roof hanok alleys west of a royal palace, once a hideout for outsider poets and painters.
Seongsu-dong Café Street
Red-brick warehouse district turned café hub, former shoe factories reborn as industrial-chic coffeehouses and galleries.
Samcheong-dong Street
Hanok-lined lane of art galleries, cafes and boutiques stretching along a historic palace wall.
Bukchon Hanok Village
Hillside district of restored Joseon-era noble houses with narrow lanes and tiled wooden roofs.