Like any good theatre worth its salt, Lighthouse has its share of ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night.
Most of its spectral shenanigans are felt or witnessed by the building’s hard working housekeeping team, usually on early morning shifts and, more often than not, in the Cinema. To the extent that some of the team will only work in there in pairs.
Sometimes there are seats up or down when they shouldn’t be, or seats that are down go back up as if someone was sitting in them and has got up. In one instance one of the team cried out in shock when she saw a leg sticking out straight in front of her. Instead of looking down at the row of seats, her colleague looked up and saw an old lady with curly hair sat stock still in a seat, like a mannequin.
“She was a big lady with long curly hair,” she reported. “I didn’t see her face, but I was terrified she was going to turn her head and look at me. Both of us just put our heads down and got out of there quick.”
Another recalled: “I’d worked at Lighthouse for about ten years then around 2012 all sorts of things started to happen. It started early one Saturday morning, and I’d gone into the Cinema to clean. This seat that was jammed down suddenly flipped up and another couple of seats around it flipped up as well. Then I saw someone flit across the window in the projection room and a few minutes later the back door slammed shut and I was out of there pretty sharp!”
Several people have seen a man in t-shirt and jeans outside the Sherling Studio and on one occasion in the gents’ toilets. He appears and disappears very quickly. Other reports include a woman in Victorian dress in the corner of the Studio and another humming in the dressing room.
“I was in there one morning and I heard this humming,” a member of the team recalled. “It was lovely music, a female voice, high pitched, sort of angelic, and it started far away and then got closer and closer to me until it was humming right in my ear. I called the others in on the radio, but it had stopped.”
In the Theatre, a number of reports suggest a mysterious presence on the stage and, some years ago, a technician once tried to grab a young girl he mistook for a colleague’s daughter playing on the stage – his arms went straight through her.
Some people have reported a mysterious smell of hot chocolate at foot of the stairs by the curved corridor; while others have said they’d heard children’s voices when there’s nobody there. In one instance, a duty manager saw a man try the handle of a locked door to the Ticket Office. He got up to investigate, but there was nobody there and nowhere anyone could have gone without being seen… except through a wall.
:: If thrills and chills are your thing, watch out for Shock Horror at Lighthouse on Wednesday 5 November. Tickets available now at https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/event/shock-horror/ or on 01202 280000.
(NC)