The Pugilist

I've only recently noticed this plaque on a rather scruffy and easily missed section of a wall outside the Guitar, Amp and Keyboard shop in North Laine. It reads

" Tom Sayers, Pugilist. Champion of England.

'It's a mans game. It takes a man to play it'"

So I did some research. Tom Sayers was a boxer. He died on 8 November 1865 after a post boxing life marred by bad relationships, a crazy attempt to go into the circus business, diabetes, tuberculosis and heavy drinking.

A good and informative page about him can be found here plus Wiki.