Tynecastle sign will be in someone’s bedroom, says Leslie Deans

Mystery of missing memorabilia goes on as former Hearts chairman insists: ‘It’s not in my garden’

Former Hearts chairman Leslie Deans remembers the sign well. Picture: Graham Hamilton

In a week of merger recollections, nostalgia is to the fore. And so we return to the thorny – or should that be splintery – question of whatever happened to the sign at the Gorgie Road end of 
Tynecastle Park?

“Heart of Midlothian Football Club Ltd,” it read in that distinctive, Western-style font, before being changed to “Plc” to reflect a new corporate era under Wallace Mercer, whose name was evoked a multitude of times this week 30 years on from his Hibs takeover attempt.

While on the phone to Leslie Deans about an unrelated subject, it occurred to ask if he had any idea of the sign’s whereabouts. He himself admits if anyone should know, then it’s him. The sign disappeared around the time of the reconstruction of the two ends at Tynecastle – when he was chairman. “I am afraid to say I have no knowledge,” he said. “Arguably I should know.

“May I say I know exactly the sign you mean because I have this lovely old painting in one of the rooms of my house. The artist was standing in the park across the road and looking directly up Tynecastle Terrace. You see on the left-hand side the church and you see the Tynecastle Terrace entrance with that lovely old Heart of Midlothian Football Club Ltd sign there. But what happened to it, I do not know.

“Dare I say it, a workman who was a Hearts supporter wanted it as a souvenir and it is sitting in someone’s bedroom or something.”

Deans is adamant about one thing. “I can assure you, it’s not in my garden.”

The mystery continues.

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