Empty Houses at Mudeung Mountain
The ceiling supports felt weak. They would have supported my weight before the fire. Now, with burnt timber and ash covering the floor, I wasn’t confident. It was a strange feeling, standing in the loft of a roof-less house looking at a mountain. The residents were long-gone – possibly dead according to a Korean friend.
That morning, on the promise of finding an old unused amusement park somewhere in Mudeung mountain, I braved the cold weather with a couple of others, armed with my camera.
We soon realised that the amusement park was no more. There were, however, a row of old houses built into the hills that were completely abandoned years ago. Two of them had suffered some serious damage during a fire at some point.
Apparently these houses were built illegally by residents who couldn’t afford to live in the city. Roughly 25 years ago, I’m told, not far from these empty houses, the police tore down a house built by a young man. He lived with his sister and mother. The man axed four government workers to death in revenge. He didn’t live very long after that.
This place was eerie – no doubt about that. I trawled each accessible room in every house trying to take it all in. My camera never stopped. Much like the Tyne tunnel pictures a few weeks back, I knew I shouldn’t be there. Yet once again I got the pictures I wanted and walked away feeling even more desire than last time to continue finding these dark, dank places.
The non-existent amusement park
Burned and Empty
Empty House
Dirty Passage
Empty Loft
