The last time I was in Liverpool, 40 years ago, the city was synonymous with the Beatles. But on a trip there this year, I decided to avoid the Fab Four commerce that has swelled since my last visit and helped the city shed some of its grittiness. For me, no Magical Mystery Tour, no walk through The Beatles Story museum nor ticketed entry to the boyhood homes of John and Paul. With a week to look around, I wanted to take in personal touchstones, see new places and maybe get a bowl of scouse, the meat stew that gives Liverpudlians their nickname: Scousers.

I was born here in the city where the River Mersey meets the Irish Sea, though I grew up in the U.S. So I had rich memories of childhood visits to relatives. But Liverpool also served as my base for the summer of 1975, when I toured Britain on a rail pass, on a final fling between finishing college in Oregon and looking for work. So when a hotel reservation service emailed me some months ago that "Liverpool is calling your name" after I browsed and then left the website without buying, my usual resistance to sales pitches didn't flare. I took out my credit card and booked the trip.

Aside from the looking-back part of the itinerary, my visit ended up heavy on architecture and museums, including the Museum of Liverpool, showing life here through wartime and peacetime, economic hardship and strength; the Merseyside Maritime Museum, an in-depth look at seafaring, shipbuilding and shipping; and the International Slavery Museum, covering the slave trade, in which Liverpool was pivotal.