The mid-1800s were not a good time for public schools. Founded for poor scholars, Eton and its kin were facing scrutiny for having sullied those early ideals in pursuit of educating the elites. In Derbyshire, Repton was under it as well. Is this why the school established a club for the East End’s underprivileged youths in 1884? Was it some kind of Victorian publicity move? Whatever the truth, it’s fair to imagine the school didn’t think it would one day end up training Britain’s most feared gangsters.
The Repton Club offered East End boys somewhere to go and something to do. Its first iteration, on Bethnal Green Road, ran to three storeys, with boxing at the top. Below things were gentler: whist, chess and bagatelle. At the club’s second home, in Victoria Park Square, Repton persevered even as the bombs of the Second World War fell: it offered football, art, even dressmaking. But boxing was the thing.
