Seoul Children's Grand Park

A golf course became a children’s park in 180 days

Seoul Children’s Grand Park began as Seoul Country Club. A 1970 presidential directive ordered the Neung-dong golf course converted for children, but relocation talks delayed construction until November 1972. Seoul then launched a “180-day operation” to finish the park for Children’s Day, and the gates opened on May 5, 1973

Opened as Korea’s first dedicated children’s park, the grounds now cover about 530,000 square metres—closer to a city district than a playground and large enough to hold a zoo, woodland and lawns, playgrounds, performance spaces, an amusement park and the Seoul Children’s Museum without forcing them into one compact attraction

The old clubhouse is still inside the park

One building makes the earlier landscape unusually easy to see. Dreammaru began as the Seoul Country Club clubhouse, designed by architect Na Sang-jin and completed in 1970. When the children’s park opened three years later, the building was adapted for public use rather than removed

By 2010 it was old enough for demolition to be considered. Its architectural value was rediscovered during that process, and a 2011 renovation stripped away later additions while preserving the original concrete frame and relationship to the slope. Seoul later designated Dreammaru as Future Heritage. Today it is a cultural and rest space whose exposed structure still looks very different from the family facilities around it

Free admission changed how the whole park works

The park once charged an entrance fee. Seoul moved to full free admission in October 2006, except for commercial facilities, and followed with a wider modernization program completed around 2009. That distinction still shapes a visit: the park grounds and municipal zoo form the free public base, while rides and some separately operated attractions are paid individually

The mix makes the site flexible. A family can spend most of the day on lawns, paths, playgrounds and animal areas without buying a package, then add the amusement park or the separately ticketed children’s museum. It also explains why the grounds function as an ordinary neighborhood park outside peak family hours rather than only as a destination attraction

The size rewards choosing a zone first

The main entrance puts Seoul Children’s Museum close to the start of the visit. The official park map places the amusement park on the far side by the back gate, while the animal and botanical zones occupy that same half of the park beyond the central grounds. The main-to-back-gate walk is about 20 minutes, so crossing the park repeatedly can consume more time than expected with small children

A zone-first visit reduces backtracking: the main gate works well for museum-first days, while the Achasan Station back gate is the shorter approach for the amusement park. The surviving Dreammaru is worth adding even on a child-focused visit because it gives the park’s transformation from private golf course to public family space a physical landmark

Before you go

Children’s Grand Park Station on Line 7 serves the main entrance, while Achasan Station on Line 5 is useful for the rear side of the park. General park admission is free, but rides and separately operated facilities may charge their own fees. Current facility notices are useful because individual subareas can close for renovation even while the wider park remains open