For more than 50 years it was the West End’s high temple of decadence, a venue that only welcomed the “exceptional, glamorous and famous”, where Rolling Stones and royalty, Beatles and Bonds dined, drank and danced together. Then suddenly last November, just days after Idris Elba launched his rosé Champagne Porte Noire there, Tramp was gone.
Since then, the Jermyn Street club where Keith Moon swung from the chandelier (getting himself barred for a fairly token 48 hours in the process) has been swathed in scaffolding and hoardings as it undergoes its biggest makeover since it first opened in 1969. But in mid-September the wraps will come off and Tramp will be back — under new ownership and management. But will it ever be able to recreate the magic formula that made it the retreat where celebrities felt most comfortable letting their hair down?
The future of Tramp now rests in the hands of its new proprietor, an effervescent Italian banker-turned-nightlife entrepreneur called Luca Maggiora who has invested about £12 million in making Tramp fit for the mid 2020s and beyond.
Maggiora, who bought Tramp from Scottish businessman Kevin Doyle after pestering him with emails for two years, says: “I only wanted this place because of the history and the Britishness. It did not have the best reputation for the past 10 or 15 years, it’s like everything in life — if you stop giving love to a place or a marriage, the place is going to go down, the marriage is going to break.”
The subterranean spaces where Kate Moss and Christy Turlington once held court are being meticulously restored and modernised to the designs of Anglo-Scandinavian interior gurus Duncan Campbell and Charlotte Rey. Images seen by the Standard show understated but supremely tasteful interiors, with a dining room called The Society next to a lounge called Jackie’s — in honour of the “queen of the bonkbuster” Jackie Collins, the novelist wife of Tramp co-founder Oscar Lerman. Upstairs there will be a lounge and bar called Gold, after other co-founder Johnny Gold, with a smoking terrace for enjoying cigars and rare whiskies.
The club’s 17th-century wood panels will be retained and picked out by clever lighting, but one key feature that will be different is the dance floor: there won’t be one. Maggiora, whose other venues have included LUXX in Berkeley Street and restaurant Bardo off Pall Mall, believes that gyrating out of time to music is no longer what people are looking for in their members’ club experience. “People don’t go clubbing any more. What was cool in the Seventies and Eighties is not cool any more. The idea of a dance floor and people dancing is not really there any more unless you are going to a festival or a big concert.”
The 44-year-old hopes to open with 500 members and is interviewing every potential joiner personally. The surviving founder members, the 150 who still only pay their original membership fee of 10 guineas (equivalent to £10.50), have been invited to come back, including member number one Sir Ringo Starr.
The new members, most of whom will pay a more commercially viable £2,000 a year, will be “a mix of everything, a mix of people from the art world, a mix of people from the fashion world, mix of people from the professional world, but also the finance world, music and film. Only if I have the right mix of people from every industry can I bring this place back”. Remarkably he intends to offer up to 50 membership a year on the old 10 guineas fee for people “who for whatever reason cannot afford it”.
Maggiora sees the new Tramp as a “home from home” where members can be trusted with their own key and obey the rules such as a ban on single-sex groups. The decadence will be much more understated than in rampaging days of yore — particularly early in the week. “On a Monday night a member will come dressed smart, perhaps with their dogs, go to Society to have beautiful food, then go to Jackie’s to drink their favourite whisky, play backgammon and have a chat and then go home at 11 o’clock — because it’s Monday night. Tuesday night will be the same, Wednesday night maybe a bit longer because maybe you have some friends from out of town who want to come and see it. Then Thursday to Saturday, we follow the flow.”
How do you bring back the glamour and decadence of the place? I bring it back by... being a sort of dictator for the first year
It is hard to see the likes of Jack Nicholson knuckling down to a quiet game of backgammon on a night out at Tramp, but perhaps times really have changed. Maggiora, who has lived in London for nearly 20 years, insists they have. “Even going out late is changing more and more — by 2am or 3am people want to go home. They don’t see the need for being out for 4am or 5am.”
One big change for Tramp 2.0 is Maggiora’s insistence on a dress code for the first time. Tramp (named after Charlie Chaplin’s down on his luck silent film persona) allowed members to wear what they liked, in contrast to its slightly more buttoned up rival Annabel’s. But for Maggiora, this is no longer acceptable. “Not having a dress code in Seventies and Eighties didn’t really matter. If I show you the pictures of Mick Jagger and The Who back then they dress amazingly even if it’s just a normal Tuesday night.” Now, members will have to leave the gym gear and visible brands at home — “Italians do not consider that classy”.
Maggiora knows the rebirth of such a venerable and notorious venue carries risk and admits there are “999 ways it might not work and only one way it will work”. He adds: “How do you bring back the glamour and decadence of the place? I bring it back by telling you to dress chic, by telling you what you cannot wear, by making sure there is a balanced number of women and men inside the place and by being a sort of dictator for the first year.
“I put in the terms and conditions of the membership that I will be able to cancel the membership without even explaining why and I will give you the money back and I will apologise and say ‘bye’ if you betray the trust — it’s the only way it will work.”
If all goes well, he hopes to build up the membership to 2,000 and break into profitability by year three.
And what about the royal elephant in the room? Could he ever imagine Prince Andrew crossing the portal of Tramp again after the infamous Newsnight interview when he denied working himself up into a sweat dancing there with Virginia Giuffre?
“Apart from journalists, no one ever asks me about Prince Andrew. I think news people give more importance to Andrew than average normal people living in a normal world who don’t really think of Prince Andrew being here. But why not? If he comes through he will be welcome, he’s still the brother of the king, of course he will be welcome.”
