Buckingham Cottage was a distinctive, ivy-covered building in Stanmore, described as the former hunting lodge of the Duke of Chandos, the patron of Handel. It was demolished in 1961, so the haunting survives only as testimony from the people who lived there.
The account comes from Mrs Margaret Hughes, who lived in the cottage from 1940 to 1957. She said the house was definitely haunted, because a piano could be heard playing very loudly in the middle of the night when neither the household nor their neighbours owned one. She also spoke of phantom footsteps, ghostly raised voices, and a man with long hair. The Spooky Isles guide that preserves her account suggests the Handel connection may explain the music, though that is the writer's speculation and not part of her evidence.
There is no record of a sighting after the cottage was pulled down. The story rests on one witness over seventeen years of residence, which is a decent length of time but still a single household's account. The pin is placed on Stanmore generally because the site of the cottage was not pinned down in the source.
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