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Troubled life of 'Britain's hardest man' – who had legs broken by stepdad aged five
Fearsome bare knuckle boxer Lenny McLean was dubbed 'Britain's hardest man' and 'The King of the Cobbles' but he was once a scared little boy who was traumatised by the actions of his stepfather
Britain’s hardest man’ Lenny McLean has been dead for over 25 years but legendary tales of his violent tendencies are still being told today.
Recently we reported how his former bouncer colleague revealed how Lenny once shattered his nose and ribs during a “friendly” sparring session.
Lenny was an East End hardman who was notorious for being an unlicensed boxer, bouncer and bodyguard. He later appeared in Guy Ritchie’s film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, shortly before his death in 1998 aged 49.
People knew him for being a 6ft 3in 20 stone giant who had thousands of fights as a bare knuckle boxer while simultaneously cosying up with London’s biggest gangsters like the Krays. He also ran a club called The Guv’Nors alongside Ronnie and Reggie’s older brother Charlie.
But perhaps less well known is who Lenny was before being branded ‘The King of the Cobbles’ and he himself gave a grim insight into his earlier years.
He was born in 1949 and grew up in Hoxton – which at the time was one of the poorest neighbourhoods in London. His dad was a Royal Marine in the war against Nazi Germany but he died when Lenny was just four – prompting an unfortunate sequence of events.
This is where his stepfather, Jim Irwin, came into the picture. The dangerous older man was a raging alcoholic.
He was also mentally and physically abusive and he used his fists and a belt to dish out extreme punishments to Lenny and his four siblings.
Lenny, whose penchant for violence followed him throughout his life, said: “He broke my legs when I was five and broke my jaw when I was six. When I was seven, he broke all my ribs. He bashed me right about until I was 12.”
Eventually the torment stopped when Lenny’s great uncle, Jimmy Spinks, threatened to kill Irwin after he gave Lenny's younger brother a vicious beating.
Lenny admired his uncle and was inspired to become a street fighter. But in the documentary, TheGuv’nor, he was described as a “tortured soul” who “always looked at his opponent like it was his stepfather”.
Speaking to The Telegraph, his son, Jamie, said in 2016: “My dad wasn’t a born fighter. He was uneducated and a product of his upbringing, traumatised by what he’d been through, and probably had mental health problems as a result of all that. Fighting was all he knew.”
He also worked the doors at Camden Palace and the Hippodrome and the burly bouncer told a story in his autobiography about taking on 18 men. Lenny was doing a shift at the Barbican club in Smithfield Market when members of a rowdy stag party started to abuse staff before being ordered to leave.
Writing in his book, he said: “I pulled a nice little cosh out of my pocket and went through the lot of them. They went down like skittles as I slashed left and right like a maniac.”
One of the injured men was left with five broken ribs while others had fractured jaws and one cop told Lenny he would be charged with GBH.
However, he wrote: “They said they’d had a note from upstairs saying, ‘We do not think it is prudent to use public funds in pursuit of a charge that one man assaulted 18 others. Of course they wouldn't – it would have looked a bit funny in the papers.”
After his own troubled upbringing, Lenny went on to impart some of his frustrations on his own children when they were little. He has a son called Jamie and a daughter, Kelly, who wrote a book called My Dad The Guv’nor.
Kelly, now a teaching assistant and a mum-of-two, said she had a love-hate relationship with him. On one hand, he could be incredibly kind, but on the other could flip out if she chewed too loudly.
She has since been told by a doctor that he likely suffered from bipolar disorder, something she has been diagnosed with, and Kelly believes this explains some of his outbursts.
“If I could have my dad back for one day, I’d tell him I was sorry that I judged him like everyone else,” Kelly, who tried to take her own life after her father died of lung cancer, said.
“There were times I hated him and I looked at him like he was a bully. It got to the stage where I couldn’t even laugh at his jokes. We did live in fear of him, but I didn’t understand he had this condition. I wish he was here now so I could get him some help. I don’t think he enjoyed life. He always looked like he had the world on his shoulders.”
Daily Star Sunday
Fearsome bare knuckle boxer Lenny McLean was dubbed 'Britain's hardest man' and 'The King of the Cobbles' but he was once a scared little boy who was traumatised by the actions of his stepfather
Britain’s hardest man’ Lenny McLean has been dead for over 25 years but legendary tales of his violent tendencies are still being told today.
Recently we reported how his former bouncer colleague revealed how Lenny once shattered his nose and ribs during a “friendly” sparring session.
Lenny was an East End hardman who was notorious for being an unlicensed boxer, bouncer and bodyguard. He later appeared in Guy Ritchie’s film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, shortly before his death in 1998 aged 49.
People knew him for being a 6ft 3in 20 stone giant who had thousands of fights as a bare knuckle boxer while simultaneously cosying up with London’s biggest gangsters like the Krays. He also ran a club called The Guv’Nors alongside Ronnie and Reggie’s older brother Charlie.
But perhaps less well known is who Lenny was before being branded ‘The King of the Cobbles’ and he himself gave a grim insight into his earlier years.
He was born in 1949 and grew up in Hoxton – which at the time was one of the poorest neighbourhoods in London. His dad was a Royal Marine in the war against Nazi Germany but he died when Lenny was just four – prompting an unfortunate sequence of events.
This is where his stepfather, Jim Irwin, came into the picture. The dangerous older man was a raging alcoholic.
He was also mentally and physically abusive and he used his fists and a belt to dish out extreme punishments to Lenny and his four siblings.
Lenny, whose penchant for violence followed him throughout his life, said: “He broke my legs when I was five and broke my jaw when I was six. When I was seven, he broke all my ribs. He bashed me right about until I was 12.”
Eventually the torment stopped when Lenny’s great uncle, Jimmy Spinks, threatened to kill Irwin after he gave Lenny's younger brother a vicious beating.
Lenny admired his uncle and was inspired to become a street fighter. But in the documentary, TheGuv’nor, he was described as a “tortured soul” who “always looked at his opponent like it was his stepfather”.
Speaking to The Telegraph, his son, Jamie, said in 2016: “My dad wasn’t a born fighter. He was uneducated and a product of his upbringing, traumatised by what he’d been through, and probably had mental health problems as a result of all that. Fighting was all he knew.”
He also worked the doors at Camden Palace and the Hippodrome and the burly bouncer told a story in his autobiography about taking on 18 men. Lenny was doing a shift at the Barbican club in Smithfield Market when members of a rowdy stag party started to abuse staff before being ordered to leave.
Writing in his book, he said: “I pulled a nice little cosh out of my pocket and went through the lot of them. They went down like skittles as I slashed left and right like a maniac.”
One of the injured men was left with five broken ribs while others had fractured jaws and one cop told Lenny he would be charged with GBH.
However, he wrote: “They said they’d had a note from upstairs saying, ‘We do not think it is prudent to use public funds in pursuit of a charge that one man assaulted 18 others. Of course they wouldn't – it would have looked a bit funny in the papers.”
After his own troubled upbringing, Lenny went on to impart some of his frustrations on his own children when they were little. He has a son called Jamie and a daughter, Kelly, who wrote a book called My Dad The Guv’nor.
Kelly, now a teaching assistant and a mum-of-two, said she had a love-hate relationship with him. On one hand, he could be incredibly kind, but on the other could flip out if she chewed too loudly.
She has since been told by a doctor that he likely suffered from bipolar disorder, something she has been diagnosed with, and Kelly believes this explains some of his outbursts.
“If I could have my dad back for one day, I’d tell him I was sorry that I judged him like everyone else,” Kelly, who tried to take her own life after her father died of lung cancer, said.
“There were times I hated him and I looked at him like he was a bully. It got to the stage where I couldn’t even laugh at his jokes. We did live in fear of him, but I didn’t understand he had this condition. I wish he was here now so I could get him some help. I don’t think he enjoyed life. He always looked like he had the world on his shoulders.”
Daily Star Sunday