Seongsu-dong Café Street

This guide to Seongsu-dong Café Street in Seoul opens in the 1960s, when more than five hundred small shoe factories crowded these alleys, hand-stitching much of the country's footwear before the boom faded and the brick warehouses emptied out. It follows the artists who, around 2011, began prying open the padlocked doors of buildings like Daelim Changgo and chose to keep the exposed steel, bare wiring and red brick rather than gut them. You'll hear how that instinct spread through the district and drew the attention of city government by 2017. Look for the original factory doors still hanging on their frames as you walk the street.