Formation of the Industrial district Yeongdeungpo, and its remains - Focusing on the industrial facilities, before the Liberation in 1945

Examined in this article is the Yeongdeungpo area today, which was in the mid-20th century one of the most representative industrial areas in the entire Seoul area, and has also been in the process of escaping that legacy ever since the 1980s. The goal of this article is to search for tangible and intangible legacies of such industrialization process, as well as remnants of that legacy ever since its detachment from such legacy. In Korea, a study dedicated to determine what kind of changes –physical or otherwise- a specific industrial area went through during its formative and dissolving phases is rather hard to find, and that is what this article aspires to be.<br/> The Yeongdeungpo area was quite different from other Korean industrial complexes of the time, as it was first industrialized in the early 20<SUP>th</SUP> century, became a light industrial area located in the vicinity of the Capital city area, along with a city plan that was established while a lot of factories were already being developed, and railways that were designated to serve as the primary method for material transportation according to such plan, but later was put under heavy pressure to go through yet another redevelopment phase in the late 20th century. An examination of this area will help us understand more clearly the general industrialization process that unfolded in Korea and other individual industrial complexes throughout the country, and reveal to us the Yeongdeungpo area’s unique characteristics through comparisons drawn between it and other industrial areas.