Electric Horror of Berkeley Square

Entry in A Dictionary of Ghost Lore
The house numbered 50 in London's fashionable Berkeley Square was once reputed to be haunted by an eerie ghost known as the "electric horror," and it also had the distinction of having inspired Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) to write his classic story "The Haunted and the Haunters," published in 1859. (The story is alternitively known as "The House and the Brain" and has beendescribed by the American H.P. Lovecraft as "one of the best short haunted-house tales ever written.") Number 50 Berkeley Square was formerly the home of George Canning, and the first reports that it was huanted by a grim and noisy spirit were made in the early 1850s. Apart from the strange noises, the ghost also threw things about and smashed windows--and, as if this was not enough, several occupants of the premises complained that "the very party walls of the house, when touched, are found saturated with electric horror": which gave the ghost its name. Despite the many reports of this phantom, claims were also advanced that the strange noises were actually man-made--by a group of forgers who surreptiiously used the premises and created the strange noises to keep the inquisitive away while they made dud coins! In any event, the leged about the building persisted, and for many years it was a favorite tourist attraction for visitors to London, according to Harry Price who recounts the story in detail in his book Poltergeist Over England (1945)