The Crown and Manor

So his dad marched him down to the local Boys’ Club and promptly enrolled him. It worked. The barbells, punchbags and push-ups gave him muscles and the boxing gave him discipline, courage and grace under pressure. He was soon over five stone and a pretty nippy flyweight. He never got bashed up again.

He became a PE teacher in the RAF and then a fabulous secondary school teacher, who taught the tougher nuts to read. Not bad for a boy who’d left school at 12.

“Saved my life that Boys’ Club!” he’d always say.

Well, that club was called The Crown and Manor and it’s been saving the lives of young men in Hackney for more than 100 years. It has survived through thick and thin and last week moved to a splendid new venue in Hoxton, opened by Mayor Boris. There are excellent sports halls, fitness rooms, classrooms and IT facilities. It offers a crucial mix of sport, the academic and vocational. The staff are terrific. They deal in tough love like my father-in-law. They know the children and their community.