Samuel Johnson said Brighton was so desolate that you would hang yourself if only you could find a tree.

The good doctor would have had no trouble in locating one in the leafy northern suburbs of Brighton these days.

Preston and Patcham, villages in the 18th century, and the hamlet of Withdean, were swallowed up by Brighton’s suburbia, starting in Victorian times.

But in contrast with the gale-blasted seafront, these areas are full of trees and greenery, much of it of great beauty.

In Preston Park, there are great elms hundreds of years old, while nearby Withdean Park houses the national collection of lilacs.

There is also one of the biggest rock gardens in Britain disguising a railway embankment opposite Preston Park.

Author Anthony Beeson says Preston Park played a major role in his happy childhood and regrets what he sees as a notable deterioration in recent years.

In a new book on northern Brighton full of old photographs, Beeson says he could have filled it solely with pictures of Preston Park.

He adds, “To see this wonderful park today is rather like meeting a once beautiful friend and finding her sadly declined.

“The flower beds were everyone’s pride and the Floral Walk and Gardens of Greetings were seasonal delights.”

Beeson criticises the city council for getting rid of bedding plants and says the central spaces in Brighton are given attention at the expense of the inland gardens.

The medieval parish of Preston stretched all the way from Hove to Hollingbury and the village remained small until the 1850s.

First the Clermont estate was built after a turnpike had been removed and it was’t long bef-ore Preston was connected to Brighton a mile down the road.

Preston still has the park, manor, churches, rock garden and many old houses, retaining its village atmosphere.

Patcham remained quieter for longer and a bypass protected it from the worst noise of the A23 when that road started to become busy.

But suburbia crept up on it between the wars and extended the village a long way to the east. However, there was always a rural feel to it and author Jeffrey Farnol in the 1920s described his home near Carden Avenue as being in Sussex downland.

Building was encouraged by the large extension of Brighton’s boundaries in 1928 which included Patcham.

It merited a royal visit by the Duke and Duchess of York – later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Crowds came out in force (pictured) to see the couple head north to the Pylons, built to show where Brighton started.

Again the old village has remained surprisingly intact with Patcham Place, a handsome church, a converted barn and a mixture of old houses.

Withdean, these days chiefly known for its sports stadium, was a tiny settlement before the modern housing which tends to be on the grand side with large gardens, preserving many of the trees.

  • North Brighton: Preston, Withdean and Patcham through Time by Anthony Beeson (Amberley Publishing £14.99)