Coordinates: 51°29′55″N 0°04′33″W / 51.4986°N 0.0757°W / 51.4986; -0.0757

Bermondsey ( /ˈbɜrməndziː/) is an area in London on the south bank of the river Thames, and is part of the London Borough of Southwark. To the west lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe, and to the south, Walworth and Peckham.

Bermondsey may be understood to mean 'Beornmund's island'; but, while "Beornmund" represents an Old English personal name, identifying an individual once associated with the place, the element "-ey" represents Old English "eg", for "island", "piece of firm land in a fen", or simply a "place by a stream or river". Thus Bermondsey need not have been an island as such in the Anglo-Saxon period, and is as likely to have been a higher, drier spot in an otherwise marshy area. Though Bermondsey's earliest written appearance is in the Domesday Book of 1086, it also appears in a source which, though surviving only in a copy written at Peterborough Abbey in the 12th century, reliably describes earlier events. This is a letter of Pope Constantine (708-715), in which he grants privileges to a monastery at Vermundesei, then in the hands of the abbot of Medeshamstede, as Peterborough was known at the time.

Dave Courtney (born 17 February 1959) is a self-proclaimed English former gangster who has become both an author and celebrity-gangster figure. Author Bernard O'Mahoney and the former member of the Richardson gang Frankie Fraser have accused Courtney of embellishing and fabricating his criminal record and position in the underworld; however, Courtney has denied overstating his past.

Courtney was educated at Forest Hill Comprehensive, where he was an active member of the drama group, taking the lead role in several plays.^{[citation needed]}

Born in Bermondsey, London, Courtney often focuses on his links with hard men such as Reggie Kray and the infamous Lenny McLean, though in the case of the former, he was nine years old when Kray was imprisoned. Courtney has claimed to have been shot, stabbed, had his nose bitten off, and stated that he has had to kill to stay alive himself. He also makes the claim that unarmed police officers were behind a car crash on the M20 in an attempt to kill him.

He often refers to himself as Dave Courtney OBE–"One Big Ego"–but is not an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. His house in south London, called 'Camelot', is decorated with Union Flags, a painted depiction of himself as a knight and a large knuckle duster.

Leonard John "Lenny" McLean (9 April 1949 – 28 July 1998), also known as "The Guv'nor," was an East End of London bareknuckle fighter, bouncer, criminal and prisoner, author, businessman, bodyguard, enforcer, weightlifter, television presenter and actor, and has been referred to as "the hardest man in Britain".

McLean's pugilist reputation began in the late 1960s and was sustained through to the mid 1980s. He has stated that he had been involved in up to 4,000 fight contests.

McLean claimed in his autobiography to have been well known in the criminal underworld. As a respected and feared figure, he often associated with such people as the Kray twins, Ronnie Biggs, Dave Courtney and Charles Bronson. He was also known in the London nightclub scene as a bouncer, where he often managed security.

In his later life, McLean became an actor, performing his most acclaimed role of 'Barry The Baptist' in Guy Ritchie's 1998 British gangster comedy film: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Lenny McLean was born into a large working-class family in Hoxton in the East End of London. His father, Leonard McLean senior, had been a Royal Marine during the Second World War, but after being debilitated by a near-fatal disease which he contracted in India he became a petty criminal and swindler. He died when Lenny was six years old, and was buried in a pauper's grave, as many working class men of the time were.