Situated on the LA harbour, which by the 1940s was the world’s largest man-made harbour, San Pedro grew from a tiny fishing community into a vibrant enclave of ethnically-diverse seafaring migrants. Even today, the tightly-packed older streets of San Pedro evoke a mood quite unlike that in any other part of LA, though the broad avenues in the rest of town have been populated by the young and upwardly mobile.

San Pedro’s Cabrillo Marine Museum (http://www.cabrillomarineaquarium.org), 3720 Stephen Wright Drive, aims its ocean-life exhibits at young minds. Older heads are better served by the accounts of the rise and rise of LA’s harbour given at the Maritime Museum, Berth 84 (at the foot of 6th Street). Nearby stand the pseudo-New England cottages which form the Ports 0’ Call Village, a gathering of sou­venir shops.