Former £500,000 mansion of celebrity gangster now ‘in ruins’

These are the first pictures inside the former mansion of celebrity gangster David Courtney since he shot himself in the head at the property dubbed ‘Camelot’.

Courtney, 64, had led a colourful life dining out on his underworld connections with London’s criminal fraternity including the Kray twins.

He had worked as a debt collector and minder, but it was his charisma and sense of humour rather than the guns he collected, which defined him in the public imagination as he became a TV and film regular who also made films, including a tale called Gatwick gangsters in 2017.

He moved into a sprawling house in Plumstead more than 30 years ago and set about making it a home fit for a king, quite literally. He even had a pet peacock to keep him company.

Inspired by the legend of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table, Courtney transformed the suburban dwelling which had originally been a school house into a shrine to Camelot.

Pictures of knights adorned the walls while the eccentric homeowner also commissioned a painting of himself in regal attire.

There was also a Sword in the Stone sculpture among the quirky items on display alongside dozens of guns, most blank firing replicas, mounted in the walls.

The outside was just as flamboyant, and no doubt a challenge to the local council’s planning department.

Patriotic flags flew over walls with motifs of knights plastered across them making it simple to find for those who flocked to visit Courtney for a cheeky autograph or selfie.

There was even a cut out of a sniper manning the front wall as if the former gangster was under siege.

But as the Metro can reveal, the walls of Camelot have crumbled since the king himself shot himself in October 2023, such was the excruciating pain he was suffering with chronic arthritis.

The grand gates have gone and the murals of knights on the walls have faded.

Weeds are sprouting from the drive where Dave would park his cars, at one stage a Rolls Royce and often a Jaguar.

He even bought a hearse which had neighbours’ curtains twitching even more than usual. But it’s the inside of the house which has seen the biggest transformation.

The once regal interior packed with odd artefacts and his beloved collection of guns is now a minimalist suburban home.

Gone is any trace of TV and film personality who made Camelot known worldwide – a home which attracted headlines although some of them tawdry. It was in many ways London’s answer to the Hugh Hefner Playboy mansion in Los Angeles  where was notorious parties thrown by the media baron.

It is hard to imagine the house now as a former venue for Courtney’s swinger parties or renowned fancy dress shindigs.

The new owner of the detached pile, Laver Shah, said he would like to have kept some of the character of the house but that everything that connected with Courtney had been stripped out before he took ownership after paying £500,000.

He told Metro: ‘I didn’t even know the history of the house when I bought it. I was not aware it was David Courtney’s place.

‘To be honest, I was gutted that everything had been stripped out, even the gates. Everything in the house was gone, nothing left.

‘It would have been nice to keep something to honour him but it was not an option. It’s a shame. I have renovated the inside but will get to the outside and tidy that up. I’m going to live there with my family.’

However, he is aware that there is one last memory of Dave that is still at the house and does raise a smile.

That is a message he daubed on the roof when Google Earth started mapping properties online.

It asks ‘what are you f*** looking at’.

The new owner told Metro: ‘That will stay, I can’t take the roof off!’

Much of Courtney’s eccentric collection of ‘artefacts’ ended up on auction sites as his status as a celebrity gave them value well beyond what they cost him.

Neighbours told Metro they were ‘gutted’ that Dave had died and that despite the swingers parties and raucous dos attended by former villains they missed the colour he brought into their lives.

Next door neighbour Sheila Wellcome, 70, knew Dave for 30 years and was a close friend.

She told Metro: ‘I knew Dave very well. I miss him so much. He may have been the king of Camelot but I was the queen.

‘I used to tell him ‘Dave this is my turf not yours. I’ve lived here 50 years in the boss. His house was over the top but that was Dave.

‘The guy who has bought it has done a good job and he is really nice to be fair but obviously it’s not Camelot inside now.’

She described how Courtney, who claimed to have been shot and stabbed in clashes over the years, had provided security at a Kray funeral and on the morning of the service suited and booted man hardmen lined the drive outside ready to roll.

She said: ‘We have seen some things, London history really, with Dave living here.

‘There was that day for the Kray funeral, there were swinger parties all sorts, it was never boring.

‘Once someone was having a party late and went round there scowling and asked them to turn the noise down.

‘They were terrified but Dave cracked a smile and said ‘only joking’. He liked a wind up Dave.’

She said her late husband had been Courtney’s good friend and the couple woke one morning to find a mural of a royal artillery soldier on their wall.

She told Metro: ‘Dave did it without asking but it was such a kind gesture as it was my husband’s regiment. It’s still there and I will keep it.’

Sheila also cherishes a photograph of her and Dave in Camelot.

She said: ‘It was crazy in there there was picture of him as an angel and the sword in the stone, Dave was such a showman.

‘People came from around the world and knocked on his door. There was at one stage a scam website which cleaned to rent out rooms at Camelot so people could stay with Dave Courtney for a week.

‘I saw a Swedish couple turn up at his door with suitcases. They told Dave they were there to stay with him. Dave politely turned them away but as with everyone he gave them a cup of tea first.’

However, it wasn’t all a bed of roses between the neighbours and Sheila put the former villain in his place when needed.

‘We have an alley between our houses which we agreed was ‘no man’s land’ when we had a dispute, she said.

‘Once his builders were very loud with a circular saw at an unsociable hour. I half joked I would grab the saw and chop the guy’s fingers off. ‘Dave beetles out and said to them all sheepish  ‘lads, time to knock it off for the day’. I usually got my way!’

Sheila said she was shocked that Courtney had taken his own life but he had been in excruciating pain.

A coroner concluded on Thursday that he had shot himself in the head with a Glock 9mm pistol after leaving a flurry of goodbye video messages saying he had been even unable to climb stairs such was the pain from chronic arthritis.

His former wife Jenny Bean and his daughter Courtney attended the harrowing inquest and he was above all a family man, according to friends.

In one highly emotive message he said he was grateful to have had a ‘wicked, superb’ life and did not just want to waste away.

He had always prided himself on his appearance and the toughness which filmmakers had drawn on when they had reputedly based the Vinnie  Jones character Big Chris in ‘Lock, Stock and Two smoking barrels’ on him.

Sheila said: ‘I saw him the day before he died he’d been to a football match. He seemed in good spirits, he was hiding a lot of pain and he was a very proud man. I will remember him as he was.

‘A real character with a big heart. I miss him every day. During covid we were in his bubble and he made it all bearable and kept us smiling.’

Other neighbours echo that view and most have a hatful of stories about the goings on at Camelot.

Ben Joyce told Metro: ‘Dave went through phases shall we say. One phase was that he sprayed everything gold.

‘I looked out one morning and the song ‘Perfect Day’ was playing on the radio. There was Dave in his garden spraying everything in sight gold. He was naked.

‘He turned around and the spray had blown back on him. He looked like a bald rotund gangster Buddha naked and glowing. I thought ‘yes this is a perfect day’ and laughed to myself.’

Sheila sums up her friend branding him ‘a legend’ just like King Arthur who he modelled himself on.

She added: ‘Dave was a one off. His spirit lives on in Camelot. The rude message on the roof sums up Dave.

‘He will now be looking down on that smiling and having a right laugh I’m sure.’

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