By Eleanor Boden: Moving to a new country is quite an exciting and nerve racking thing to do. Finding your own place to live, friends, having job security are all things that I took for granted in Australia.
The thing I was most excited about in my new adventure was finding the perfect place to continue my boxing. Starting in a new boxing club after being in the same club in Sydney for seven plus years increased my trepidation so much that it felt like I was starting all over again.
Having arrived in London without a job lined up I quickly discovered how alone I was in such an overpopulated city, going to training was my only social outlet.
Prior to training, my days consisted of job searching, applying for jobs and interviews. As exciting as these days were I really needed to punch something or someone after having experienced the Northern Line at peak hour.
After much internet research and communication with the relevant people in ABAE (Amateur Boxing Association of England), I knew the place for me was going to be Fitzroy Lodge Amateur Boxing Club.
My first experience of training in my new club, in London was not the usual visual experience that most other fighters speak of...
My first memory of starting at the Lodge was having the pleasure of speaking to Mr. Mick Carney over the telephone.
He answered the phone in about a half a ring and shouted down the receiver in an almost cartoonish South London accent “Fitzroy Lodge!”
I replied in a mumble something about being a boxer from Sydney and asking if I could come and try out the club.
Mick replied “Where are you coming from?” I said near Angel in Islington.
Mick: “Islington! Well la-di-da, you hop on the tube on the Bakerloo line, get off at Lambeth North, walk down Hercules Road then turn right.” Click, he hung up without taking a breath.
There was no better way to break the ice.
To a new comer this blunt way of talking might seem very daunting, but having been around gyms since I was a young girl I am quite accustomed to the varied characters that one meets in the colourful world of boxing.
Mick Carney is the Number One Big Boss and Master of Fitzroy Lodge. What lies under a rough, no holds barred exterior is a man with a heart made of gold. If you are lucky, you occasionally get to see the biggest smile this side of the Thames.
His affectionate words and colourful language are true to his Bermondsey roots.
“Do you want fucking arthritis? That’s what you will get with these sopping wet bandages!”
Or slightly damp hair after showering;
“You are going to get fucking pneumonia walking outside like that!”
Fitzroy Lodge was founded in 1908 by Doctor Lionel Baly. Around the turn of the 20th Century Dr. Baly studied to be a surgeon in Belsize College. When he graduated as a Surgeon he took residence in St Thomas Hospital in Lambeth. Dr. Baly noticed that in many parts of London, including Lambeth there were no social amenities for young people. With this observation Dr. Baly decided to form an Athletics, Football and Boxing Club and also the fifth Lambeth Scouts club. He named this club “Fitzroy Lodge” after the name of his boarding house in Belsize College. In those days Lambeth had a high level of poverty and crime. Dr. Baly was highly respected in the Borough, and throughout South London for all the effort he put into his youth projects.
The first residence of Fitzroy Lodge was at Walcott Square were the club remained until it was destroyed by a German bomb in 1939. The Lodge did not have a permanent home for seven years.
During this time, the Lodge merged with The Lynn, another famous South London Boxing Club. The two rival clubs trained together at the Clarence Arms, and put on shows to raise money for various war efforts.
When the war was over Fitzroy Lodge and the Lynn wanted their own identities back so went their separate ways. In 1946 Ernie Stagg, the Club Leader at the time, found a new permanent residence for the beloved Lodge under a railway arch in Lambeth road. The arch unit had been a former snooker hall but after being a bomb raid shelter during the war, it was in a decrepit state and needed to be completely refurbished. This involved erecting two boxing rings and several punching bags. The Lodge is still under the same railway arch today, where the lights dim slightly for a fraction of a second when a train roars past overhead.
One of the oldest and most illustrious boxing clubs in London, the Lodge has produced many outstanding champions such as Cornelius Boza-Edwards, Ted Bami, David Haye and the late Nevill Cole.
In all this time Fitzroy Lodge has never received any government funding or assistance.
Currently Fitzroy Lodge is part of the No Messin’! Network Rail Campaign. This project is designed to keep kids away from the dangers of the railway tracks by giving them something productive to do,
And what could be better than boxing!
The present Senior Lodge coaches are Mark Reigate and Adam Martin, better known in the gym as “Reigate” and “Ads”, are teaching the current crop of Lodge boxers in a fun and unique way. It was one of the proudest moments in my career when I earned my Lodge jacket given to me by Mick Carney
Under the expert tutelage of these three gentlemen I hope to earn my place in the growing list of Fitzroy Lodge champions.
Boxing is essentially a very lonely sport, in which one experiences isolation at a level that can only be truly understood by those who have dedicated their lives to the noble art. Under the railway arches of Lambeth Road however, you are never alone.
June 29, 2009
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