Bermudas, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Bermudas n.

[proper name Bermuda Islands, where certain well-connected debtors fled to avoid their creditors. London’s Bermudas were either the alleys and passageways running near Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and/or the Mint in Southwark]

certain areas of London that were considered safe havens for criminals and debtors.

1614		Jonson Bartholomew Fair II vi: Look into any angle o’ the town — the Straits, or the Bermudas — where the quarrelling lesson is read.
1616		Jonson Devil is an Ass III iii: There’s an old debt of forty, I ga’ my word. For one is run away to the Bermudas [F&H].
1630		J. Taylor ‘Watermens Suite’ in Works (1869) II 175: A volley of new coined oaths (newly brought from Hell to the Bermudas by the ghost of a Knight of the Post).
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 74: bermudas, in London. A cant term for certain obscure and intricate alleys, in which persons lodged who had occasion to live cheap or concealed; also called The Straights. They are supposed to have been the narrow passages north of the Strand, near Covent Garden.
1839		(con. 1703) W.H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1917) 16: The Island of Bermuda (as the Mint was termed by its occupants) should uphold its rights.