Luca Maggiora: "I created Tramp Health with our members"

Entrepreneur Luca Maggiora is sitting in the April sunshine on a terrace beside London’s Grosvenor Square. The facade of The Chancery Rosewood Hotel rises behind him – an imposing architectural backdrop framing tables shaded by gigantic parasols. A waiter is busy at work, dishing out menus devised by nutritionist Eve Kalinik and serving pastel-hued smoothies. There is the hum of chatter, the clink of glasses and eruptions of laughter. “Welcome to Tramp Health,” he says in a thick Italian accent.

It is the first day of opening at the wellness terrace and cafe - the sociable heart of a new health club, which opens fully to its members on 29th May. Tramp Health is the next step in Maggiora’s 20-year plan for the Tramp brand, following his purchase of the storied Jermyn Street nightclub, which underwent a £12mn refurbishment in 2023 before reopening in September 2024 as a “home from home” member’s club.

Despite the nostalgia attached to the hedonistic days of Tramp in the 70s and 80s, when royals and celebrities partied until the early hours, Maggiora is committed to safeguarding its future by creating a fitter and stronger brand that has the flexibility to adapt to the realities of modern life. He cites cultural shifts that have fundamentally changed the way we socialise and spend our time. “Back in its heyday, if you were not a part of Tramp you were nobody. Now things are different,” says Maggiora, who converses at such speed it’s hard to keep up. “My generation, at 45, like to go out but the next morning they are at the gym at 7am. And, like it or not, the younger generation spend their money differently today. Social media is a big part of it – they don’t need to go out to meet people like we did, and in my line of business, which is highly competitive, this can make or break you.”

Maggiora talks of community and belonging, ideas that are central to his member’s club, and connecting them from night-to-day in what he calls his “ecosystem”. He has done the groundwork, taking the time to talk to every member of Tramp one-by-one, and has created his new health club with them. “They told me they wanted somewhere sociable, not a clinical space with white walls and nurses with clipboards,” he says. “Then there was the location. My members live in Marylebone, St Johns Wood, Victoria, Belgravia, Chelsea and South Kensington, so Mayfair was a best-seller and clearly the sense of space you have in Grosvenor Square is great. I knew this unit had not been assigned two years ago, so I bid for it with a very clear vision.” 

To say this location is attractive is an understatement: the club, which has cost £12mn to create, stretches 16,000sq ft across one floor beneath The Chancery Rosewood Hotel with the 75-cover cafe-terrace above. "I was very lucky. The landlord understood the importance of building a community here,” Maggiora says of securing the space. 

I get a personal tour, and we descend to a subterranean floor that is still partially bare bones and breeze blocks. I’m later shown the full vision conceived by Tommaso Franchi of design studio Tomèf Design: sinuous clay walls, stone and bespoke detailing under pools of soft light – an oasis of calm. 

I’m in for a mini workout – Maggiora walks at the same super-charged speed as he talks, and I double my pace to match his own. We pause briefly. “Here will be the reception desk with seating and a lift coming from above. There will be a merchandising wall and over there is the office of our doctor [Dr Mark Mikhail] who will do diagnostic blood testing,” he says, before sprinting off again. 

He leads on to what will be the heart of the club – a central oval-shaped space adorned with a 20ft “tree of life”. “There are three entrances here,” Maggiora explains. “Entrance number one is the PT studio, which is 65sq m. Entrance two takes you to a Hyperbaric chamber, it gives you double the intake of oxygen; and entrance three is the mindfulness studio. We’ve created it only for mindfulness, running six-to-eight hours a day with a programme of breathwork, kundalini, yoga, shamanic healing, meditation, sound, gong, a full-moon ceremony and cacao ceremonies. I want it to really be a sanctuary where you can come in and de-stress, do mindfulness and inner-strength work.”

Maggiora kicks-off again. “Then you come here, to this huge Pilates studio, 90sq m,” he says entering a cavernous space, his booming voice echoing around the room. “We are going to keep the six-metre-high ceiling. There’s going to be 15 reformer Pilates machines here, eight hours of classes a day.” 

I think we are done but discover we are only half way through the tour as I’m taken to the beauty area. “There are three therapy rooms, two of which are places where you can book laser, Exomine [advanced, autologous exosome-rich plasma (ERP)] and scalp therapy [by Libi Roos], and the fourth therapy room is solely for physio, recovery and Chinese medicine,” Maggiora explains. Then on to the studio. “It is completely soundproof and we are putting in a red-light panel for hot yoga, hot Pilates, and strength classes six to eight hours a day.” Next are the plush changing rooms, which lead on to a mixed area for men and women. “Here, there’s a 15-person steam room, a 20-person sauna, and two cold plunges.” And the gym? “It’s 3,000sq ft, completely open with the best of everything: Eleiko, Hammer, Technogym Strength, Precor, Panatta, Watson…” 

By which time, we’ve walked past another space dedicated to mobility, cardio and stretching, and are so far under the hotel, we’ve reached the doors to the Carbone restaurant kitchen. I need another lion’s mane power shake! But I’m also secretly plotting on how I might become a member. How much does the experience cost? “For our members it is £390 per month [on top of their £2,000 a year membership],” Maggiora says, "I want people to enjoy it even if they are just coming for yoga and matcha.” Non-members can also access the space after a meeting with Maggiora, for an annual fee of £10,000, plus a £5,000 joining fee. 

Maggiora says 380 Tramp members have already signed up. “People connect with this place because they were part of the vision. And we have been careful who is a part of this because we want it to be community,” he continues. “For example, no-one under 28 is a member. It’s not that we are excluding anyone, it’s just that we know there’s another club that is a better fit for them.” Of the potential competition from other clubs, he says: “I think the future is boutique experiences, not standardisation. My members like experiences, curated for them.”

The entrepreneur is already manifesting a new vision. “I think it will be a place in the countryside, no more than 75 minutes from London, so people can spend time there and return the same day. There will be fields with activities such as horse riding,” he flashes a smile, clearly plans are already afoot.

I wonder what the chain-smoking, whisky-drinking crowd of Tramp nightclub might think of it all. But then, like the rest of us, most of them who are still here to tell the tale have switched late-night shots for an early morning protein shake. We are entering the Super Tramp era – the fitter, leaner offspring of the naughty night-lover.