Jack Broughton

It's a story about James Figg, a master of the sword and staff, who turned physical combat into a public attraction.

It's about Jack Broughton, also known as The Bruiser, who created a set of rules which are often treated as the beginning of modern boxing.

It's about wealth, gambling, newspapers, fashion, celebrity, yeah, and violence.

And it's also about women, because women were not merely somewhere in the crowd.

James Figg's famous amphitheatre was advertised in Oxford Road.

in Marybone Fields.

Jack Broughton's later establishment stood close by, near the late Mr Figgs.

This is the territory around what is now Oxford Street, at the meeting point of Marybone, Bloomsbury and St Pancras.