The History of 11 Arundel Terrace

From 1865 until his death in 1886 this house was home to the Conservative politician David Smith, who was both MP and Mayor for Brighton.

Smith was elected to the town council in 1872, made an alderman in 1877 and became the Mayor in 1880-81.

In the General Election of November 1885 he was elected as one of the town’s two Conservative MPs, marking a shift in Brighton’s political representation from Liberal to Conservative. He was returned to Westminster again in July 1886, following the fall of the Liberal minority government over Irish Home Rule, but died suddenly in November, aged 60. His single year at Westminster makes him still Brighton and Hove’s shortest-serving MP.

Smith’s widow Eliza was still living in the house at the time of the 1901 census, and a Smith family continue to appear in street directories until 1938, although it is not certain this is David’s family as no children are recorded in earlier census returns.