The Marmot’s Hole

For the full-sized photos, see the Flickr slideshow.

You’ll recall that last year, I paid a visit to Seoul Waterworks in Ttukseom, Korea’s first water treatment facility. At the time, the historic facility was undergoing restoration, so there wasn’t too much to see. The restoration was completed in the winter, so I revisited the place Saturday to see how things turned out.

As it would turn out, the restoration work turned out just fine. The facility — designated Seoul City Tangible Cultural Property No. 72 — is now used as the Seoul Waterworks Museum, and is attached by a walking path to Seoul Forest, so if you’re visiting Seoul Forest, it’s worth stopping by, especially if you’ve got an interest in Korea’s early modern history or just like pretty old buildings.

As I wrote last year, Seoul Waterworks was founded by two American businessmen, Henry Collbran and Harry R. Bostwick. Although Colbran and Bostwick were railwaymen by profession, they still managed to win a number of concessions from the Korean royal government, including the rights to build Seoul’s tram system, Seoul’s first electric system and the Seoul-Incheon railroad.

Ah, the joys of the Imperial Age.

Anyway, the two Americans obtained the rights to build Seoul’s first water treatment system in 1903. In 1905, those rights were transfered to a British company. Colbran and Bostwick were entrusted with construction of the facility, however, which they completed in 1907. In 1911, the company was sold to Shibusawa Company of Japan, and soon after transfered to the Government-General of Korea.

Although the old facility is now a museum, right next door is Ttukseom Water Treatment Facility.

The pump room is a nice red brick building with a granite arch entrance. The balustrade, meanwhile, is ceramic. It never ceases to both amaze and sadden me how back then even industrial facilities such as these were built with a sense of aesthetics and style — see for example London’s Battersea and Bankside power stations. They just don’t build ‘em like this anymore.

Seoul Waterworks used slow sand filtration to purify the water. The slow sand filters — build in 1907, expanded in 1938 and used until 1990 — are now open to the public. The filters, too, are quite beautiful in their own sort of way, their concrete arches the oldest reinforced concrete structure in Korea.

Near the pump room, under an old protected tree, is this rather out-of-place Japanese stone marker that was recently moved to the museum grounds. My Chinese character reading ability is shite, there’s no description to the marker, and I can’t find anything about it on the Net. If anybody out there can tell me what it says, I’d be very grateful.

Hmm… deer.

Seoul Forest, completed in 2005, likes to think of itself as Seoul’s answer to New York’s Central Park or London’s Hyde Park. Like the Cheonggyecheon, it was one of then Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak’s controversial high profile projects. Also like the Cheonggyecheon, it was a bit of a rush job (built in just three years) that nevertheless represented a substantial improvement over what was there before, the subsequent 2MB PR job not withstanding. Central Park it’s not, but it’s a very pleasant place indeed, and at least it wasn’t turned into apartments.

Seoul Forest is a big place, and I saw only a small part of it, namely the part with the “wild” sika deer, which aren’t quite wild, but still a tourist favorite. A long and quite architecturally pleasing pedestrian bridge, which links Seoul Forest with the Han River Park, offers some pretty nice views of this corner of the forest.

The pedestrian bridge leads to Han River Park, which I believe is technically still part of Seoul Forest and not to be confused with Han River Citizens Park. It’s essentially a biking/walking path along the confluence of the Han River and Jungnang Stream. Lots of daisies this time of year, and lots of families and dating couples.

Getting There

Seoul Waterworks and Seoul Forest is best approached via Ttukseom Station, Line. To help you out, I’ve created a Google Map:

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