LONDON, U.K.
This building in the otherwise upper-class area of Mayfair has for the last fifty-plus years called itself home
to Maggs Brothers - a business specializing in antique book sales - was at one time for much of the 19th
century called "the most haunted house in London" and a place curious onlookers flocked to. It was once the
home to former Prime Minister George Canning until his death in 1827. It was then leased to a Miss Corzon
who lived in it until her death at the age of 90.
It is also known that Sir Winston Churchill lived at 48 Berkeley Square in his childhood.
Belying the sweeping grandeur of the interior, the marble floor and fireplaces, its lofty hand-plastered
ceilings and large elaborate staircase, the building at 50 Berkeley Square has been the scene of many
terrifying paranormal activities and tragic events.
The first known incident occurred when the young daughter of a servant fell to her death down the grand
stairway. There is some speculation as to whether foul play was involved, but the little girl is said to haunt the
top floor of the house.
In 1907, Charles Harper penned a tome called Haunted Houses in which he wrote of an English nobleman
who willfully spent the night in one particularly haunted room on a wager, scoffing at the notion that an evil
entity inhabited it. One concession was made - he would take along a serving bell that he would ring if he
required any assistance during the night.
Just after midnight the bell was heard ringing, at first faintly and then quite loudly and with greater urgency.
Some friends who had accompanied him quickly ran up the staircase and burst into his room. What they saw
struck them with fright: the nobleman was lying rigid on the bed, his eyes wide open with a look of sheer terror
on his face. Unable to speak and relate what had occurred, the nobleman died shortly thereafter. Charles
Harper related the account in this manner:
“… It seems that a Something or Other, very terrible indeed, haunts or did haunt a particular room. This
unnamed Raw Head and Bloody Bones, or whatever it is, has been sufficiently awful to have caused the
death, in convulsions, of at least two foolhardy persons who have dared to sleep in that chamber…”
Apparently the challenge taken on by the nobleman was inspired by an earlier incident in the 1850s in
which a young house maid met the same fate. Upon being shown to her room her first night there, her screams
awoke the household only two hours later. Like the nobleman who was to follow, she was found standing in the
middle of the room, unable to speak of what had her befallen her and was never able to do so. While her life
seemed to be spared, whatever had happened had driven her quite insane.
It is no surprise that the building remained empty for much of the 1870s, probably due to the horrifying
experiences and ghostly reputation that surrounded it. The sound of a body being dragged up the stairs,
flashing lights in windows and screams said to emanate from the empty dwelling were enough to keep most
people - even the curious - away.
A story has made the rounds that on Christmas Eve 1887, while on shore leave, two sailors named Martin
and Blunden looking for a place to take shelter for the evening came upon the building and seeing it empty and
uninhabited, broke in to find a place to sleep. Apparently the room they chose was the same one which housed
the evil entity responsible for the nobleman's death long ago.
In the middle of the night they were awakened by heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. Fearing they had
been discovered by the owner or a passing policeman, they sprang out of bed. Before they could execute their
escape, the door of the room flew open and a black, shapeless mass began to form inside. Martin bolted past
the form and made it out of the building to safety, but his friend was not so lucky. Fearing the worst, the first
sailor ran to the local police station and returned with an officer to the house. There outside the building, they
found the lifeless body of Blunden, who remained behind, impaled on the wrought-iron fence that enclosed the
property. Apparently out of fear, the sailor had jumped out a window to his death to escape the being inside the
room.
Maggs Brothers Book Store
There have been a few theories put forth for the hauntings and those responsible. In Charles Harper's
book, he speaks of a Mr. DuPre who imprisoned a brother who went insane in the attic. The brother was so
violent and ferocious that he could only take meals through a hole in the door. When he eventually died, his
violent spirit was said to have remained behind, tormenting the living both physically and psychologically.
There are also tales of several women who have jumped to their deaths rather than face the advances of
the master of the house and whose spirits are said to look sadly from its windows.
Perhaps another more rational explanation to the activity comes in the form of a man named Myers, who
owned the house immediately after Miss Corzon. and was once engaged to a lovely member of Britain's upper
class. Upon being unexpectedly jilted by the young lady, Myers became something of a recluse, wandering
about the house at night and only by candlelight. It is reasoned that the lights many saw in the windows could
have possibly been the despondent groom drifting through the rooms of his own home.
There is also another bizarre fact regarding Mr. Myers. In 1873 the local council charged him for failure
to pay taxes. When he did not appear in court on then date of his scheduled hearing, the magistrate excused
him on the grounds that he lived in a haunted house.
The building's ghostly reputation apparently has carried on into modern times, however. In the year 2001,
a man named Julian Wilson was working on his computer inside the Maggs Brothers offices one Saturday
morning when he saw a brown mist begin to form, then move across the room and subsequently vanish.
Coincidently, that office is located in the same room in which the young maid, the nobleman and the sailors
met their fate. That same year employees began to feel sensations that they were not alone and in one
instance a gentleman had a pair of eyeglasses snatched from his hand and thrown on the floor.
50 BERKELEY SQUARE
