Namdaemun Market

1 · POSITION

Namdaemun Market spreads beside Sungnyemun, the great South Gate of Seoul, and has been traded in since 1414 under King Taejong of the Joseon dynasty. It now counts more than ten thousand stalls, vendors and restaurants. It is the oldest and largest of the city’s traditional markets, and the register files it as the origin of the Korean permanent market. [1, 2]

2 · FROM GATE MARKET TO PERMANENT MARKET

Traders gathered at the gate in the centuries after its founding; in 1608 King Seonjo set up Seonhyecheong, a tax office whose stores drew merchants to the area. In 1897 Changnae Market was established on the tax office’s storage lot with about 85 stores, open all day rather than only at dawn — the country’s first modern permanent market. By 1907 half the vendors were Korean, a fifth Japanese and almost a third Chinese. [1]

3 · FIRES AND OWNERSHIP

In 1914 the Japanese Government-General declared the market outdated and tried to dismantle it. It was damaged in the Korean War, and in 1953 a fire destroyed more than a thousand shops; fires have struck it repeatedly since, and trade has resumed each time. In 1957 the city gave its operating rights to the Namdaemun Market Merchants Association. [1, 2]

4 · WHAT IT SELLS

From the 1980s it became known for specialist rows — kitchenware, textiles, clothing, artefacts — and its lanes still hold hundreds of camera shops beside jewellery, luggage, porcelain, suits and traditional dress. Food runs through it: fish and meat on ice, fruit carts in summer, and juice pressed from Jeju tangerines. [1, 2]

5 · ⚑ CANDOUR

⚑ Checked on 22 October 2026. The register’s note called the 1608 market a grain market. Seonhyecheong was a tax office that drew traders; an all-day market moved into its old granary at Changnae in 1897. The note now carries both dates. The 1414 origin is placed at the South Gate by one source and near the old Mapo port by another; the two are not reconciled. [1–3]