Monday, 10 October 2011
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Monday, 19 September 2011
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Monday, 9 May 2011
NEW PROPER EAST WEB SHOP
Proper East have done a distribution deal which now means wherever you are in the world you are guaranteed a no nonsense slick ordering and delivery service. Our online shop will be down for a week but when it's back up we'll let you know.
In the meantime if you are looking to get yourself a Proper East shirt and your in East London get yourself down to The Kenton in Hackney, they'll sort you out. x
In the meantime if you are looking to get yourself a Proper East shirt and your in East London get yourself down to The Kenton in Hackney, they'll sort you out. x
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Monday, 20 December 2010
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
PROPER EAST PIN BADGES
We now have Proper East pin badges and will be giving them away FREE with any t-shirt or bag Purchase.
Friday, 5 November 2010
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
DIRTY OLD TOWN
BOXING CLEVER
Matt Lewis, Great grandson of Young Billy Lewis.
One hundred years ago boxing was many things to many people. A sport, or even the noble art, but to East Enders it was the preferred form of mass entertainment. Any building that is, or has been, a cinema, bingo hall, music venue or theatre in the last fifty years, would have spent some time in the previous fifty hosting boxing bills.
To one particular East Ender – William Luccione – boxing served another purpose. It was a source of serious income. The money to be made from boxing was a dazzling reflection of how much East Enders were enjoying watching the fights. This particular cockney, the son of an Italian immigrant who had fled the Austrian army in his homeland and made his way to Clerkenwell and Bethnal Green, was now himself a father, to the three handsome fellahs in the photograph, and his skill in the ring was allowing him to handsomely supplement his wages as a Billingsgate fish porter.
This additional income was hard-earned though; the fee-paying public was not prepared to wait months between fights like they do today, and Young Billy Lewis, as this was the ring name that William Luccione had adopted, would face a gruelling regime with plenty of punishment, alongside the physical work at the fish market, which must have been good stamina training.
Between 1900 and 1914 Young Billy Lewis amassed enough money to support his family and establish a life for themselves in the East End, but also gained a reputation as one of the area’s best fighters, who in a different era might have enjoyed more adulation than that which had been afforded him by the East End of a century ago. By 1914 he had another fight to contend with, and he never returned from the trenches in Belgium, fighting for the country his father had fled to near the end of the 19th Century.
In the middle of Billy’s boxing career another East End fighter launched a career that would eventually lead to a world title. Born Gershon Mendelhoff in Aldgate, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, in 1893 his boxing destiny was unfolding before him in 1909 and, like William Luccione and so many other fighters, needed to adopt a name that would do more to endear him to his English homeland. He chose Kid Lewis, eventually becoming Ted “Kid” Lewis, and began a journey that eventually led him to Madison Square Garden, a World Welterweight crown and a six year rivalry with the already legendary Jack Britton. It is a testimony to his achievements that whilst the East End is considered one of the hotbeds of boxing talent, he is still the name that gets referred to most when talking about great East End fighters, eighty years after his heyday.
Fast forward to 1950, and a seventeen year old called Barry Lewis, my old man, is about to start his National Service. Whilst he is waiting for this peculiar rite of passage to get underway he often goes to train and spar with his cousin Ted, who is working under the watchful guise of Jack Solomon at his Soho gym, a mark of the promise that Ted possesses.
A permanent fixture at Solomon’s is none other than Ted “Kid” Lewis, the former world champion, who remains seated in the corner of the gym holding court through successive pots of tea. Young Barry dares not to approach the legend, but during a quiet moment the champion approaches him.
“I hear you are a Lewis.” The statement does not invite a reply. “Is it true that your grandfather was Young Billy Lewis?” Barry replies in the affirmative. “I named myself after your grandfather. When I was young, and making my way I had to lose my Jewish name, I looked around and he was the best that there was, so I chose Lewis for myself. Your grandfather was one of the best I ever saw.”
Proper East!
Words and photo, Matt Lewis.
Words and photo, Matt Lewis.
Friday, 22 October 2010
Thursday, 21 October 2010
PROPER EAST MAKES IT ALL THE WAY TO NEW YORK YEAH!
Jan previously of Dead Kids sporting Proper East with Dominique Young Unique in NYC.
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
EGIL JOHANSEN
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
CHEEKY
PROPER ARRIVAL
REAL
It was suggested to me in my teens that if I wanted to progress in life I needed to change my accent accordingly. Having a strong cockney accent it was deemed that it would be a future hindrance. Instinctively I felt uncomfortable with the thought of presenting myself as something I wasn’t. Instead I decided to learn a new word everyday. I now take great pride that I stayed true to myself and my East End roots.
Ironically today’s word is ‘Verbose’.
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
CAPTAIN 'TALL' STEVE
Captain Tall Steve of the Proper East Pirates will be soon writing a piece about the influence sailors have had on the East End. Chop Chop!
Friday, 23 October 2009
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