Heading west from the slick skyscrapers of Downtown, Wilshire Boulevard passes through Westlake, perhaps best well-known as the home of MacArthur Park, where, in the Jimmy Webb song of the same name, someone left a cake out in the rain. The park is divided in two by Wilshire. The area south of the boulevard is dominated by a palm-fringed lake with a geyser-like fountain fed by natural springs. The northern half includes an amphitheatre and a bandstand that hosts jazz, big band, salsa and world music concerts. In the 1890s, the park was a vacation destination surrounded by luxury hotels. By the early part of the 20th century, the area became known as the Champs-Élysées of Los Angeles. In the 1980s and 90s the park was notorious as a centre of gang activity, but an aggressive campaign by community leaders and the LAPD in recent years has encouraged the re-emergence of small businesses and visitors have begun to flock to the area once again. The views of Downtown across the lake make it a great urban picnic spot.

Continuing west, Wilshire Boulevard crosses Vermont and enters Koreatown, roughly bounded by 8th Street to the north, 12th Street to the south and Western Avenue to the west. In the 1970s, South Korean emigrants, displaced by the heavy-chemical industry drive, settled in the area (which already had a small Korean population) and it was christened Koreatown. The growing community soon became famed for its Korean BBQ, tofu houses, noodle shops and a wide selection of excellent restaurants. At that same intersection is the Wiltern Theatre (213 388 1400) which is, along with the neighbouring Pellissier Building, a stunning landmark clad in glistening aquamarine terracotta tile and regarded as one of the finest examples of art deco architecture in the country. It is also one of finest concert venues in LA.

A mere 20 blocks westward, Wilshire crosses Highland, marking the eastern boundary of the Miracle Mile, so dubbed because of the rapid development of the area from sleepy rural community to high-rise urban density in the mid 1920s. Twenty blocks up the Mile is Museum Row, one of the densest museum complexes in the world. It is here that the vast Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) compound nestles up against the reconstructed woolly mammoths of the Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits across the boulevard from the Peterson Automotive Museum (323 930 2277; www.petersen.org). LACMA is the largest encyclopaedic museum west of Chicago, with more than 250,000 works of art from antiquity to the present. The museum also features film and concert series throughout the year. The Page Museum’s meticulously constructed dioramas offer startlingly realistic windows onto the prehistoric past. Artefacts are gleaned from the bones of creatures that still bubble up from the tar pits now ringed by walkways. The Peterson’s exhibits of rare and classic cars explore the impact the evolution of the automobile had on our culture and society. Kids love it. Finally, at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, is the old May Company building, a marvel of modern architecture salvaged by LACMA and now its architectural annex.

The area around the corner up Fairfax to the north is the Fairfax District, long a centre for the city’s Jewish community. There were four synagogues here in 1935. Ten years later, there were twelve. After the second world war, many more Jewish emigrants, among them Holocaust survivors, settled in the area. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Fairfax District was the centre of Jewish life in Los Angeles. Of the many kosher delis and shops that once lined Fairfax Avenue, only a few remain. Thankfully, one of the best delicatessens this side of New York survives, the famous Canter’s (www.cantersdeli.com).
The Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax was created in 1934 by farmers who offered their locally grown produce from the tailgates of their pickup trucks. It was an instant success and the dusty lot was transformed into a bustling marketplace and remains so to this day, with fresh fruit and vegetable stalls crowded together with chic little eateries and icecream vendors (www.farmersmarketla.com). This is a favourite among Angelenos and visitors and has become even more successful with the development of The Grove, an innovative, upscale mall designed to vaguely resemble a European marketplace and featuring high-end restaurants and high-tech cinemas.

CBS Television City was built in 1952 at Fairfax Avenue and Beverly Boulevard. This is where the network records The Young and the Restless, the Late Late Show, and The Price is Right. Tickets for shows are available at the box office on the corner but it’s wise to call in advance (323 575 2458).

A bit further up, Fairfax intersects with Melrose Avenue. In the late 1970s, Melrose became known as a street of funky shops and a youthful street scene; LA’s version of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. Like that famous locale, the area has had its ups and downs but today it is a fashion district celebrated for its eclectic and independent designers and chic bistros.