Welcome to your weekly fix of UK and Irish escape room news covering everything that this site has discovered in the last fourteen days!
Exit Games is always on the look-out for new rooms or venues that are opening, references in the media or anything else that might be of interest to the readers, so please do send an email if you spot anything of interest. That applies to owners too – feel free to send me your news for inclusion here. Don’t be shy!
I’ve made a big effort to get everything up to date – I think this is probably as accurate as Exit Games has been for several years. To keep it that way, I’d be grateful if you could tell me if you spot anything that’s inaccurate – whether that’s a game that’s now closed or just opened! DM me on Facebook, Twitter or drop me an email! Thanks!
On to the news
- North West England
- Crack It Bolton opened their doors a week ago and have three experiences – Boot Camp, Pirate Cove and Haunted Mansion. It’s an unusual structure with you attempting to complete a series of challenges before, if you’ve done well enough, facing an end game called “the Crunch”.
- Lucardo Rawtenstall are opening their second game, Corruption, which has an unusual take on an undercover police game.
- Looks like Escape Reality is continuing to expand its empire with a new branch in the Printworks near the city centre. No details on when Escape Reality Manchester will open yet though [EDIT: opening date is 1 Aug].
- Wales
- The Escape Rooms Newport opened their long awaited second game, HOST
- A lot of escape room owners have been talking about the pain from the GDPR, so what better way to make learning about it more palatable than an escape room? Yes, really. Thanks to Toby from Escape the Review for the tip.
- East of England
- Bishop Stortford is getting a second escape venue. Bishop’s Stortford Escape Rooms joins Vire in the town, with plans to open a game called Eerie Motel. They even managed to get a bit of press coverage.
- Axe throwing and escape rooms both seem to be pretty trendy experiences at the moment so why not combine the two? Well, at least have a venue that combines the two: Axes and Escapes in Fakenham. The games, The Classroom and the Gauntlet, appear to be entirely new but there are references to Find a Way Out (
a nearby escape room venue that closed downEDIT: The website went away but it’s still very much open and has a couple of new games) which suggests that they’re designed by the same people.
- Scotland
- Can You Escape?, the Edinburgh escape venue, closed Operation Deadlock and replaced it with Operation Spellbound
- Falkirk has long been in need of an escape room venue and now a couple of them have appeared in the last month. Firstly, Divergent Games have opened with Detective in Trouble and then, a week later, Transcend Escape Rooms opened Agenda 21 and The Funhouse. Thanks to Jackie from Exit Games Scotland for pointing those out.
- The Glasgow-based company, Locked In Escape Room, opened The Surgery
- Ireland
- End Game Escape Rooms is a new company in Dublin with plans to open three games – Purge, Prison Break and the Butcher.
- East Midlands
- Escape Oakham is a new venue from the Escape brand. They’re running a single, 90 minute, public-ticketed game for up to ten players called Escape the Gaol.
- Cave Escape opened in Nottingham with a single game, Carfax. Yep – that’ll be set in Nottingham’s subterranean underworld!
- Lets Xscape opened in Newark-on-Trent with the first game entitled The Rig.
- South West England
- Bath had escape rooms more than four years ago but, unusually for an early adopting town, no truly new companies have opened since. That’s changed with the arrival of Escape4fun. If you like unusual themes, then this should be right up your street with two games – Comic Adventure Room and Action Escape Room.
- Escape Room Torquay have opened with an escape room that, as far as I could see, has neither a title nor a description on their website! It’s set in the Crime Museum though, so one imagines that it will be based around some sort of crime!
- Tr@pped Escape Rooms in Devon are opening a second game, Templars.
- Eureka Escape Truro are opening their second game, the delightfully named A Matter of Thyme.
- West Midlands
- Adventure Farm near Derby are getting into the escape room business with a Maize maze escape room. We’ve had escape rooms on farms, and escape rooms set within mazes but I think this will be the first one set in a proper maize maze.
- Escape Time in Sutton Coldfield open Magic School this week for all those budding witches and wizards.
- Escape Live Stratford-upon-Avon opened The Shakespeare Code, which is the first game I’ve seen with a Shakespearean subject.
- Clockwork Escapes in Wolverhampton opened their third game, Starpoint Alpha
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- The Escapologist open a second location in August, this time over in Castleford. Two games are promised: Frozen in Time and Secret Service – Winter Fall. I’m curious as to whether there’s any connection between them or if the common cold-theme is just a coincidence.
- Enigma Rooms Doncaster are opening their fourth game, Mafia
- Labyrinth in Grimsby open Cell 13 this week.
- Tick Tock Unlock Leeds have opened Project Pandora, a game already present in at least one of their other venues.
- South East England
- Xscream Escapes will be opening in the suburbs of south London. No details yet as to what games will be available.
- Get Lost Escape Rooms in Dover opened The Krevokar Programme last week.
- Escape Reading have opened their fifth game, Blown Away.
- London
- Omescape have opened a second venue in the capital. Their Aldgate branch has just a single game at the moment – Kingdom of Cats. That game has an impressive reputation out in the US (or at least, it did have eighteen months ago).
- A second Namco venue has launched an escape room. Namco Funscape (Romford) has “The Safecrackers: Blue Eyed Cats” which was previously in their London venue.
- London Escaped are launching in the capital in August. They’ve currently got two games on their website – Da Vinci and the Prisoner.
- Lollipop are launching an escape room over the summer. The Grid is part immersive theatre, part escape room and part bar. Make of that what you will.
- AIM Escape are due to open Hangover Deja Brew this week, their third game.
- Want to know more about the person behind Trapped (Trapped in a room with a Zombie and Trapped in a Prison Van)? Well, here’s an interview.
- Blog posts
That’s all I’m aware of. If any of the above is incorrect or if you’re aware of other news, significant discounts or competitions, then let me know via email or in the comments below and I’ll include updates in the next edition.
Thanks for reading!