‘Abandon every hope ye who enter here.’ This is the inscription above the gates of hell in Dante’s Inferno. It’s also the inscription above the door to the main exhibition area inside the ‘Psychiatry: An Industry of Death’ Museum on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Standing behind a bright, white desk at the museum’s reception is a wiry, bespectacled man in his fifties. He jerks a thumb at the adjacent door. It’s either made of rusty iron or it’s been painted to look that way, giving the impression of the entrance to a dungeon or asylum cell. ‘We built the door to match the quote,’ he chirps.

It’s my first time in LA and everyone has told me I will hate it. I keep hearing that the city is ugly, vulgar and congested. But by the morning of my first full day there I already love it. I’ve always been drawn to maligned cities. I don’t know anyone in Birmingham but I have been there twice. I once extended a visit to Warsaw from two days to six.