50 Berkeley Square

50 Berkeley Square is a reportedly haunted townhouse on Berkeley Square in Mayfair, Central London. In the late 19th Century, it became known as one of the most haunted houses in London. Researchers have since suggested an entirely rationalistic explanation for the alleged 'haunting' phenomena that involved the house occupant, Thomas Myers. It has also been noted that many of the stories about the house were exaggerated or invented by later ghost-writers.

The four-story brick townhouse was constructed in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century. Until 1827 it was the home of British Prime Minister George Canning, commemorated by a plaque on the house today. The house was later occupied by Miss Elizabeth Curzon, who died in 1859, aged 90.

An eccentric "Mr. Myers" acquired the house in 1859. He was a recluse who never went outside, only answering the door to receive food from his servant.. It is suspected that Mr. Myers was Thomas Myers, the son of a member of parliament.

It was later bought by BP. From 1937 to 2015, the building was occupied by Maggs Bros, a firm of antiquarian book dealers. In 1998 the building was thought to be the oldest unaltered building in London.

Legend varies, but mostly states that the attic room of the house is haunted by a spirit of a young woman who committed suicide there. She purportedly threw herself from a top floor window after being abused by her uncle; and is said to be capable of frightening people to death. The spirit is said to take the form of a brown mist; though sometimes it is reported as a white figure. A rarer version of the tale is that a young man was locked in the attic room, fed only through a hole in the door, until he eventually went mad and died. One story states that the attic room is haunted by the ghost of a little girl that was killed by a sadistic servant in that room. At least two deaths were attributed.

From 1859 until the early 1870s, Mr. Myers, who had been rejected by his fiancée lived in the house. It was said that he would lock himself inside and slowly went mad over the rest of his life. During his stay at the house, it fell into gross disrepair and it is during this time that its reputation began to build. Myers died in 1874.

It is alleged that as a bet, in 1872, Lord Lyttleton stayed a night in the building's attic. He brought his shotgun with him, and during the night fired at an apparition. In the morning, he attempted to find the apparition, but could only find shotgun cartridges. The next year the local council brought a summons to the house's owners for failure to pay taxes, but due to the house's reputation as haunted they were not prosecuted.

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