Welcome to your weekly fix of UK and Irish escape room news covering everything that this site has discovered in the last seven 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!
On to the news
- National
- I put together some analysis of the UK escape room market on my other blog, The Logic Escapes Me, showing the industry growth and sharing my thoughts on the what the future might hold.
- South East England
- Tulleys Escape Rooms in Crawley opened their third game, Nethercott Manor
- Winchester’s ClueCapers joined the club opening their third game, A Curious Inheritance, having closed down a copy of their original Mission to Winchintzy game earlier in the year.
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- X-it Games joined the growing band of Yorkshire games, opening Afterlife in Bradford.
- The Escapologist opened their second branch, this one in Castleford, with two games, Secret Service: Winter Fall and Frozen in Time.
- Clue HQ Harrogate opened the second of their three rooms opting for the Clue HQ stalwart, CSI: The Panic Room
- Ireland
- It’s been a busy time for Ireland with lots of openings. Escape Scene Limerick filled the gap recently left by WeEscape shutting its doors in the town. They’ve got two games to start with, the Fairytale and Arcade rooms.
- Asylroom Limerick have been open less than a year but things are obviously going well because they’ve opened a third game, Philosopher Stone Quest
- Over in Dublin, Escape Boats, a company regularly recommended on the international enthusiasts’ list, opened their second game, Convicts
- Great Escape Rooms in Galway replaced their Prison Break room with The Vault
- Celtic Escape Rooms just left Athlone, which is perhaps for the best with Exit Athlone opening their fourth game, Celtic Temple, which might have caused confusion with visitors otherwise.
- Wales
- Welsh games are always exciting, given how rarely they appear. Since it’s a city, it seems fitting that St Davids has finally got its own escape room, although with a population of less than 2000 it’s probably going to rely somewhat on tourists. St Davids Escape Room opened about a month ago with an untitled game.
- North East England
- Never Give Up have opened a second game, The Dungeon
- London
- clueQuest are running a competition to win a trip to Budapest, as well as a huge number of other goodies. If you think you’re quick at escaping then head down to their venue, play and if you’re one of their fastest teams, you’ll win a prize.
- Escape London opened a fourth game at their Shepherd’s Bush branch. OverThrone isn’t a game I recognise from the Escape stable so will be interesting to see whether it’s a home developed game or one that’s being tried out here and will spread round the country.
- Komnata London opened their doors as an escape room company with two games that are both available in their New York venues: Saint Angelo’s Castle and Doctor Frankenstein
- London Escaped are another company with games that are available in the US – Da Vinci and The Prisoner
- North West England
- I’m excited to find Total Enigma are a new company launching in Carlisle. That’s long been on my list as an obvious gap in the market so it’s pleasing to see it’s finally been filled!
- Clue HQ Blackpool (Promenade) opened Cell Block C
- Escape Quest opened Henry Fortune’s House of Illusion
- The Escape Room Manchester closed The Mummy – not sure whether that was to make way for a new game or if they’re permanently reducing the number of games at the venue.
- Escape Reality Manchester opened their doors and as usual immediately launched plenty of games. Manchester sees Enigmista, Alcatraz, Tortuga Pirates, The Asylum, Bank Job and the Legend of the Mummy.
- Unsurprisingly, the local news ran a story about it.
- Confirmation that The Escape Room Preston is closing down all its games and in its place Escape Reality Preston is launching. Interesting there’s a significant overlap in terms of the game themes with Alcatraz (vs Prison Break), The Revenants (vs Vampire Chronicles), Trapped in the Gallery (vs Gallery), Abducted (vs Taken) and Seven (not similar to previous themes). I reached out to them via Facebook and while they’re using the same space, the puzzles and stories will be entirely new.
- Escape Stockport opened Menu for Disaster
- South West England
- Cornwall’s Great Escape Rooms closed The Cold Case of the 1920s
- Trapped Escape Rooms opened Alien Abduction
- Scotland
- Escape Rooms Scotland Glasgow re-opened its doors with two games, CSI: Glasgow and The Lost Tomb
- 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!