At the Cock and Bull village pub on Main Street, I supped some local ale the Rheingeist Brewery’s Truth IPA had fresh, tropical notes, but I was more into the ballast, tearing into thick dough of home-baked pretzels, dipped into melting, beer-infused cheese. Many Germanic details remain, from Gothic script on some shop signs to businesses owned by family names such as Jentz, Kemper and Frisch, as well as the picturesque, if slightly out-of-tune, glockenspiel bell tower inside Goebel Park. This ridiculously pretty set of streets and avenues is lined with the type of handsome houses you might find in London’s Notting Hill – all pastel-coloured frontages and tall windows – except they’re available for a quarter of the price. One area the Germans settled in is the historic district of Mainstrasse Village. Last Exit to Springfield: How America’s coolest city made The Simpsons.Salt Lake City guide: Where to eat, drink, shop and stay in the ‘Crossroads of the West’.

One even depicts some of the toys invented by Cincinnatian company, Kenner Products, many of which were British kids’ childhood staples: Care Bears, Star Wars action figures, Play-Doh.

Vivid images helped me glean a bit more about the past and present of Cincy – as it’s affectionately known by locals – with the work spanning illustrations of local heroes, such as renowned Modernist wildlife artist Charley Harper and various sports stars, to images of food, abstract designs and more political messages exhorting tolerance and togetherness.

Vast, colourful murals adorn multiple walls, from the exteriors of restaurants and apartment blocks to half-demolished buildings, where empty lots are now used as ad hoc car parks. I was barely a couple of blocks into my first stroll around downtown Cincinnati, heading north from the business district that lines the Ohio River with its smattering of skyscrapers, when I began spying street art.

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