Same arches.
Since 1947.

In 1947, with the docks winding down and the East End rebuilding, a Bethnal Green stevedore named Bill Hartrey hung a heavy bag in a derelict railway arch on Pollard Row and started teaching local lads to box. He called it Ironside — after the ships he'd unloaded, and the kind of men he wanted to build.

For nearly eight decades, the gym has never moved. It survived slum clearances, three recessions and the fitness fads that came and went around it. Bill's granddaughter runs it now, and the same brass bell he salvaged from a scrapped trawler still rings the rounds.

We've sent fighters to national finals and beginners to their first sparring session. We've turned nervous office workers into people who can hold their own in a ring. What hasn't changed is the promise: real coaching, no judgement, and a community that has your back from the first jab.