'It's a pity my house isn't haunted'
Katharine Love, owner of Joburg's Lindfield Victorian House Museum, on what it's like to live in a museum and why having a resident ghost would be an asset
I was 13 when we moved here. I was born a block away, and we would never have moved if it wasn't for the expropriation of land by Rand Afrikaans University.
My mother was a great collector of antiques of all eras, but we had a big enough collection of Victoriana to furnish the whole house in Victorian style.
When I opened the house to the public 18 years ago I wanted it to look like a lived-in home of the period, not just a museum.
I live in the whole house - sleep in the main bedroom, sit in the drawing room, and cook in the kitchen, which is part of the tour. I hide away modern appliances, and if a Victorian gadget works then I prefer to use that when I'm cooking.I don't believe in ghosts, and am sure the house is not haunted - by now I would have noticed. Pity - it would be an added tourist attraction to have a ghost!
The house (designed by Herbert Baker in 1910 ) had six owners before my family bought it in 1967. The people we bought it from said that they had a ghost - they called him Oom Kalie and said that he lived in the roof.
We used to hear noises in the roof after we moved in but I'm sure it was just rats or birds. After a while the noises stopped and my mother jokingly said, "Oom Kalie couldn't stand living with us - he's moved!"
I think the previous owners invented Oom Kalie to frighten their children. From time to time we have heard other mysterious noises in the house, but I'm sure they have a logical explanation.
When I give tours it's not the overseas visitors who ask about ghosts, it's the locals. There seem to be a lot of very superstitious people living here.
I've noticed that the darker the room is, the more likely they are to imagine that they have seen or sensed the presence of a ghost in the room.
When we moved here there were five of us - my mother and father, grandmother, uncle and myself. My grandmother died shortly after we moved in, and the following year my father died too. After my uncle passed away it was just my mother and me for many years.
When I do my tours I wear a Victorian maid's dress. This is either the working outfit worn in the morning, consisting of print dresses, or the afternoon black uniform, worn with a starched white collar and cuffs and white apron.
• To book a tour call Katharine Love on 011-726-2932, e-mail lindfieldhousemuseum@outlook.com or visit lindfield.wix.com/museum...
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