September 10 – The original ‘This Is Anfield’ sign, first installed by Bill Shankly in 1972, has sold at auction for £115,000, more than seven times its guide price.
The sign hung in the Anfield tunnel from the early 1970s, one of three iterations over the years, before being taken down some time after 1979 and replaced. Listed through BUDDS with an estimate of £15,000, it closed at £115,000 on Wednesday, with commission and VAT pushing the final total above £138,000.
The winning bid came from the ARC Hotel, confirming the purchase in a post on Instagram:
“We are incredibly proud to announce that we are now the custodians of the original 1972 “This Is Anfield” sign — the very first sign introduced at Anfield during the Bill Shankly era.”
The sign’s significance is bound up in how Shankly saw it. “It’s there to remind our lads who they’re playing for and to remind the opposition who they’re playing against,” he famously said.
There’s a lovely bit of detective work behind the sale, too. It was long believed the original came down when Bob Paisley took over in 1974, but new research proved otherwise.
Auctioneers spotted the original in photos from Alan Hansen and Kenny Dalglish’s signings, and Frank McGarvey’s arrival in 1979, identifying it by its cracks, paint marks and chips.
Its journey after Anfield is stranger still. Boot Room man Roy Evans gifted it to youth player Ron Wilson, who took it to the Isle of Man and hung it in his B&B, the Rutland Hotel, until 2000. It later sat in storage and an office before the family chose to sell.
Now, the sign will be housed at the Arc Hotel, who insist the sign belongs to the fans.
“This is not simply a sign. This is a piece of Liverpool Football Club history.
“At the Arc Hotel, we believe passionately that this sign belongs with the fans. It belongs with the people. It belongs in Liverpool. So we want to welcome every Red — young and old, from Anfield to the other side of the world — to come and see it, stand beneath it, remember what it represents, and enjoy a genuine piece of Liverpool FC history.”
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster, at nick.webster@insideworldfootball.com