‘It’s my second home!’ Gen Z and the sudden, surprising boom of luxury gyms

Gold plated … fancy gym memberships can cost you as much as £10,00 a year – and that’s before the £5,000 joining fee. Photograph: Sashkinw/Getty Images

The best part of Owen Willis’s day is his morning shower. Notes of lavender and eucalyptus waft through his private, stone-tiled shower room as he uses a £32 bottle of Cowshed bodywash. He dries off with a fluffy white towel before slathering on Cowshed body lotion (£24).

This isn’t Willis’s home, however. It’s his gym. He belongs to Third Space in London, which calls itself a “luxury health club”. Memberships start at £230 a month for an individual site and go as high as £305 for access to all of its branches, including the Mayfair club, where gym-goers can expect “UV-treated fresh air” and “a Himalayan sea-salt walled sauna and steam room”.