ONE OF Brighton’s greatest attractions is not even in the resort. It’s the city of London just 50 miles away.

As the nearest south coast town to the capital, Brighton fared better than any of its rivals and still does. Ever since trains made commuting possible, London has been a magnet for work and entertainment.

I have lived in Brighton for more than 50 years and my devotion to the place is unwavering. But I spent most of my childhood in London and I still feel my roots are there.

I quickly acquired the knowledge of London that only a feral child of a type that now barely exists could do. Not the whole of the capital, that would be impossible, but large tracts of the centre and west. By the time I started work on local papers I knew every street in Kensington, Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham. I still know most of them and get a thrill every time I go back there as a visitor.

In drab and battered post war Britain, London was the one bright spot. But it has changed immensely since then. There is no way in which families like mine who were not wealthy could afford to live there now. The crumbling house my parents bought for £5,000 in 1948 and sold for not much more in 1962 now has a penthouse and is worth millions.

The primary school I attended has become one of the best performers in Britain now that the metropolitan elite have moved in.

London has been the dominant city in Britain for much of its life. It is the main centre for government, commerce, the arts and much more besides. When I lived there, London was predominantly a white city although there had been successive waves of immigration.

The Irish were the most numerous but there were so many people from Poland in parts of West Kensington that some street signs were written in both English and Polish.

In the years before I left, there was an influx of immigrants from the West Indies which at first was met with much hostility. London had to decide which way to go, assimilation or hostility. It decided to live up to its reputation for tolerance although there are still some battles to be won.

Since then London has become a multicultural centre and is all the better for it. No other European city I have visited has quite the same vitality. Brighton used to boast of being London by the sea and some said East Street was the equivalent of Bond Street in the capital. Many famous Londoners such as Laurence Olivier, Gilbert Harding, Terence Rattigan and Anna Neagle came to live here.

Some companies which started in Brighton such as Brown’s and the Body Shop expanded to become national names. But many other businesses, impressed by Brighton’s veneer of sophistication, failed because it had nothing like the capital’s pulling power.

Brighton has revived itself by daring to be different and is faring better than most other resorts.

But London is something else. You have only to look at the landscape to see what is happening. The city which once regarded St Paul’s and Westminster Cathedral as tall buildings is now stuffed with skyscrapers.

There are even more in the former docks.

Now the cranes are moving further west with the huge development around Battersea Power Station leading the way.

London is so large that it has become almost a separate state. Its economy is bigger than that of many countries. There are calls from some quarters for this power and wealth to be distributed more evenly nationwide and notions such as moving the House of Lords to York are being considered.

I am all for encouraging growth in the great northern cities such as Leeds and Liverpool which are doing well and Hull, which is not.

But London is the capital and its tremendous prosperity is spread not just in the neighbouring south east but also in most other regions. Brighton benefits from its proximity to the capital which helps provide much of its energy.

It is possible to be in London within an hour by rail to work or play. That is a tremendous asset.

Dr Samuel Johnson famously said that when a man is tired of London he is tired of life. Sometimes he came to Brighton to see friends and swim in the sea but he was not impressed.

He said: “Brighton is so desolate that if one had a mind to hang oneself through desperation at being obliged to live there it would be difficult to find a tree on which to fasten the rope.”

Strong words indeed but even in those days the lure of London was too great to resist.