Mapo Oil Tank Culture Park: parking, rates and seeing T0–T6

Checked in September 2026 against the official 문화비축기지 park page and the City of Seoul's own listings, figure by figure. Rates and access rules change often, so call the park on 02-376-8420 before you set off.

How many parking spaces does Mapo Oil Tank Culture Park have, and what does it cost?

The car park holds 107 spaces. It is open 24 hours, but charges apply only between 09:00 and 22:00 — 150 won per 5 minutes for a standard car (1,800 won an hour) and 300 won per 5 minutes for a mid-size vehicle, which takes two bays. Outside those hours it is free.

Six of the 33 oversized bays are EV charging bays. Parking an ordinary car in a charging bay carries a 100,000 won fine under Korean law.

One thing to watch: several pages still list this car park as having 42 spaces, including the Korea Tourism Organization's Korea Unique Venue sheet. The city's own park page says 107.

Where do you park when the car park is full?

The official page carries the line "parking is limited and weekend traffic is congested, please use public transport", and on a fine weekend it does fill quickly. The alternatives are the World Cup Park car parks a short walk away — and this is where a widely repeated detail is wrong. The park's own car park stops charging at 22:00, but the World Cup Park car parks charge until 24:00 and only open free after that. Plenty of guides say 22:00 for those too, so remember the two-hour difference if you plan to leave the car late.

The nearest useful alternative is the Peace Park car park (531 Seongsan-dong, Mapo-gu). On football-match and event days a flat rate replaces the time rate: 5,000 won for a car, 10,000 for a mid-size and 15,000 for a large vehicle, each covering 4 hours. Discounts are 80% for disabled drivers and national-merit holders, 50% for compact and eco-friendly vehicles, 30~50% for families with several children, plus a separate 30% for Noeul Leisure Centre programme participants. World Cup Park parking enquiries: 02-304-6679.

Live space counts are on the Seoul Parking Information System or the Seoul Parking app.

What are T0 through T6?

Seven spaces: the open plaza T0, five converted oil tanks T1~T5, and T6, built from scratch out of steel plate salvaged from the dismantled tanks. The five tanks went up in 1976~78 after the 1973 oil shock and held 69.07 million litres of petroleum — about a month's consumption for Seoul at the time. They were closed in 2002 on safety grounds ahead of the World Cup, and after a 2013 public ideas competition the site reopened as a culture park in 2017. The floor areas below come from the facility listing published by The Moon Entertainment, which now operates T1~T6.

T0. Culture Yard — 7,620㎡

The first space you meet, an open plaza that hosts large performances, festivals and markets in turn. It includes a separate 987㎡ wooden deck, and on days with nothing on it is simply somewhere to sit.

T1. Glass Pavilion — 553.87㎡

A petrol tank, dismantled and re-roofed and re-walled in glass. Through it you can see the Maebongsan rock face that the tank hid for some forty years, so the room reads differently with each season, hour and change of weather. It is used for exhibitions, workshops and performances.

T2. Stage — 2,579.95㎡

A diesel tank whose upper half was left open to the sky as an outdoor stage, with an indoor auditorium below. The rock face and the concrete retaining wall that once wrapped the tank give the sound a natural reverberation, which is what makes the sky, the wind and the hillside part of the performance.

T3. Sustained Oil Tank

The one tank left exactly as it was, never dismantled — the only place on the site where the industrial structure survives whole. It is exhibition-only and does not appear on the rental listing.

T4. Culture Complex — 1,068.04㎡

A kerosene tank whose interior was kept intact and now holds performances, exhibitions and hands-on programmes. Walking along the vast steel shell and the red fire-suppressant pipework is what makes the scale of the tank land.

T5. Story Hall — 883.94㎡

A circular exhibition room telling the story of the site's turn from oil depot to culture park, with helmets and work clothes used by the depot's staff on display. Exhibition-only, like T3.

T6. Community Center — 2,604.63㎡

Built new from the steel plate taken out of T1 and T2, and holding the site office, a creative lab, classrooms, meeting rooms and a cafeteria. The second-floor roof deck frames a circle of open sky, and a small ecology library called the Eco Lounge sits alongside it. Cafe Tank6 is on basement level 2 and opens every day of the year. The operator's listing also includes LM TANK (284.25㎡), a rest and dining space.

How many registered performance venues are on the site, and how many seats?

KOPIS, Korea's performing-arts data network, registers six halls here totalling 11,180 seats. T3 and T5, both exhibition-only, have no registered hall. The capacities published for the same spaces by the Korea Tourism Organization's Korea Unique Venue listing are noticeably different — the two count different things (registered seats against maximum occupancy per space), so rather than pick one, here are both.

Two of the six agree exactly — the T2 outdoor stage at 400 and the round meeting room at 30 — while the other four run 1.5 to 2 times higher on the KOPIS side. What actually governs a ticket is the seating the promoter opens on the night, so read the listing for the specific run rather than inferring scale from a seat count. Current and past performances are on the venue page for Mapo Oil Tank Culture Park.

When can you go inside the tanks?

Since April 2025 T1~T6 have been operated under a paid-use licence, and walk-in access to the tank interiors ended with it. The insides are now open only through a scheduled tour or an individual event. The grounds and walking paths are unchanged and still open around the clock.

Book the guided tour on Seoul's public service reservation site by searching 문화비축기지 and picking a date. Audio guide units are lent from the information building in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese. The Korea Tourism Organization's listing gives the guided tour as Korean-language for up to 30 people per session and the audio guide as up to 45.

Enquiries go to different numbers by space: 02-508-2205 (The Moon Entertainment) for tanks T1~T6, and 02-2133-0425 for T0 Culture Yard and the walking paths. For reference, hiring T0 costs 141,613 won an hour under Seoul's public property ordinance, the 987㎡ wooden deck 18,324 won an hour, and outdoor photo or video shoots 13,000 won an hour with 50% off each additional hour.

How do you get there?

The address is 87 Jeungsan-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul (Seongsan-dong), a 10-minute walk from exits 2 and 3 of World Cup Stadium station on Seoul Subway Line 6. By bus, get off at 월드컵경기장서측·문화비축기지 (571, 710, 760, 6715, 7019, 7715, 9711) or 월드컵공원입구·문화비축기지입구 (271, 6715, 7011, 7019, 7715, 8777, 마포08). The park's main line is 02-376-8420.

Is there an admission fee?

Entry to the park is free, and so are the guided tour and the audio guide — you only need to book or borrow. Individual programmes staged inside T1~T6 since the April 2025 change to a paid-use licence may charge, so if you are going for something specific, check the price for that session on its booking page.

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Sources checked

• Mapo Oil Tank Culture Park, official page · Seoul Parks — parking spaces and rates, tour schedule, T0~T6 descriptions, hire charges
• World Cup Park, official page · Seoul Parks — nearby car park sizes and the 09:00~24:00 charging window
• Seoul World Cup Stadium parking · Seoul Facilities Corporation — stadium west and Homeplus bays
• Facility listing · The Moon Entertainment — floor area per space
• Korea Unique Venue · Korea Tourism Organization — capacity per space, tour group sizes
• KOPIS — registered venue data, as of September 2026