The history of St Paul’s

St Paul’s started life in 1948 in St Paul’s Church, Bridlington Avenue, Hull, from where the club takes its name. It was founded by Frank and Don Downie, two brothers who wanted to provide a place for local boys to learn discipline and hard work.

The gym soon grew in popularity and established a loyal membership and regularly competed with other boxing clubs in the city such as the famous but sadly defunct Fish Trades Boxing Club.

However, in 1954, the future of the club looked in doubt after St Paul’s Church was set to be demolished. Thankfully, the church hall was to remain standing and the club moved into that.

Through the 1950s and early 1960s, the club continued to flourish until it finally outgrew the church hall, meaning it was time for another move.

In 1964, St Paul’s Boxing Academy left the site where it had been established 16 years earlier, and moved to nearby Mason Street.

This heralded the start of a golden era in the history of St Paul’s, with well-known dynamic duo Trevor Wainwright and Allen Murray taking over as coaches. Other volunteers included Mike O’Kane and Frank Henderson, Charlie Bell, and Jim Curtis.

Under this management, the club continued to go from strength-to-strength, training several regional and national champions. St Paul’s was fast making a name for itself among boxing circles as a force to be reckoned with.

The club took another leap forward in 1970 when current head coach Mike Bromby joined.

Mike had a very successful amateur career, taking part in around 120 bouts and winning a number of regional and national championships.

In 1980, he took over as head coach and now utilises his expertise in leading our team of experienced coaches to help members achieve their potential both inside and outside the ring.

In 1974, St Paul’s Boxing Academy moved to its current location on North Church Side, Hull city centre. The building, a former dance hall called Kevin’s Ballroom, provided a large space to accommodate the growing membership.

But with a larger venue came bigger costs, so in 1980, the club formed its first women’s committee consisting of Doreen Curtis, June Cook, Sue Cook, Margaret Waudby, Jean Anderson, Stella Frankish, and Evelyn Croll.

The committee was in charge of catering at events and raising money by organising jumble sales and other fundraising activities.

The fundraising was integral to keeping the club going over the ensuing years, but it wasn’t enough to maintain the building, which gradually started to decay over the following decades.

Although the club continued to achieve some notable milestones during this period, including the rise of Luke Campbell MBE to become Olympic Gold Medallist in 2012, the future of St Paul’s began to look in doubt due to a leaking roof, crumbling false ceiling, outdated and inadequate changing facilities, damaged windows, and faulty heating and lighting systems.

Thankfully, a group of local businesspeople led by John Rutherford recognised the fantastic work St Paul’s does for its members, including young people from some of the most deprived areas in Hull.

In 2015, they set up a committee, determined to raise the necessary funds to completely refurbish the gym and secure the future of Hull’s oldest boxing club.

Work got underway on an extensive, £1m refurbishment in spring 2020, and despite the disruption caused by COVID and successive lockdowns, it was completed a year later.

During this period, St Paul’s also achieved charitable status by becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO).

The renovation has heralded an influx of new members, ranging from those who want to compete at a high level to those who wish to get fitter, lose weight, and find new friends.

St Paul’s has also become the only club in East Yorkshire sanctioned by England Boxing to run training courses for coaches, enabling us to not just train the successors to our own coaching team, but to provide other gyms in the area with new coaching talent to enhance the standard of boxing across the region.

The renovated space has also enabled the club to vastly expand the number of community groups and organisations we are able to work with, which includes NHS Mental Health, Hull College, Cat Zero, Hull KR, Hull FC, Hull KR youth team, local football teams, military veterans, people suffering with Parkinson’s Disease, and many others.

With our new state-of-the-art facilities, St Paul’s once again is in the midst of a golden era with the best crop of young boxers currently coming through the ranks in the club’s history.

Our expert team of coaches, along with our trustees, are committed to ensuring this continues and St Paul’s Boxing Academy remains creating champions inside the ring and outside for many years to come, providing our members with the skills they need to thrive in all aspects of their lives.