Ghosts are rarely seen by more than one person. But there are exceptions. There was the remarkable Lowestoft "ghost" which was seen by hundreds of people, indeed it became a nightly show! The ghost of Clapham Road drew huge crowds in the 1930s - till it was found that it was a mere trick of the new street lighting.

So great were the crowds to see "the old man of Clapham Road" that the police had to be called out to keep them under control.

Alas, it was the ghost that never was. But for a time it chilled the spines of Lowestoft.

It all began in February, 1933, when someone saw the figure of a man in the doorway of a house in Clapham Road. As they approached, he disappeared.

"Many weird and fantastic stories are going the rounds," said a newspaper report at the time, "about a supernatural something in white light, a kind of luminous ghost, appearing in a certain doorway after dark.

"Imagination, vivid and stretched, gave the form of a shape of a man in a leaning posture, by the side of the door."

The crowds which gathered to see the ghost appear every evening at about eight o'clock were so great, it was reported, that posses of police were on duty to move them on and keep the roadway clear.

Eventually it was demonstrated that the ghostly figure was the result of new street lighting reflected through certain windows. But though the ghost had been "exorcised," it was a long time before the crowds ceased to gather for the nightly show.

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