Exit games does an excellent blog on UK wide escape rooms, with regular news updates. If you’re not already a reader, then I highly recommend you sign up. I still think it’s interesting to have a page dedicated to London’s scene though, that can talk in a bit more detail about what’s going on, and occasionally, shamelessly, throw in a bit of unsubstantiated rumour.

The aim is for this to be a monthly publication, keeping track of all the news in the London Escape Room scene. Apologies in advance – I may leave some elements on for several months running if I still think they’d count as news to non-regular readers.

Competitions and special offers

See below for more details, but Oubliette Escape Rooms are running a kickstarter project where you can snap up tickets for their planned escape room at discounted prices.

Slightly outside London, but Clue HQ Brentwood are within striking distance of the capital, and have a reputation for tough games. They’re currently offering a 20% discount with the 3AR1YB1RD code – check out their Facebook page for more details.

Check out PlayExitGames‘ card if you intend to visit a couple of different sites from their list this year – they’ve got Brighton, Cambridge and London and I fully expect them to add a few more.

Lies, damned lies and statistics

• The Logic Escapes Me reviewed: 21 (plus 9 outside London)
• November reviews planned:
  • Clue HQ (Bunker 38)
  • Clue HQ (Detonation)
  • Agent November (Murder Mystery)

News and Rumours

No doubts at all about what the biggest news of this month is. Oubliette Escape Rooms announced a crowdfunding project for their first game. Set in an Orwellian dystopia, where the government control what information you can access and there’s pervasive CCTV, this promises to be an exciting addition to London’s lineup. Why such big news? Well the fact they got £5k raised in a little over 24 hours is a good sign, but there’s so much more. I won’t bore you with details here, because I’ve already blogged about it.

Escape Hunt London’s venue has now being taken over by Escape Entertainment. 8 rooms, 6 copies of “Bank Heist” and 2 of “Prohibition Pandemonium”. I still haven’t seen any reviews from the new rooms, so if you head along then make sure to post something on TripAdvisor!

Much to my surprise, QuestRoom have finally opened their room after 18+ months of “coming soon”. I’d assumed they’d given up and the page would eventually just disappear, but they’ve launched with a “prison break” theme. Really looking forward to finding out if this has been worth the wait. Hat tip to exitgames for spotting this.

Following their successful crowd funding campaign, Enigma Quests have now opened “School of Witchcraft and Wizardry“, the first of the rooms that they plan for their current location. I’ve already been along and can recommend it, particularly for beginners. More excitingly it sounds like they’re planning on opening the next room early in the new year, and with that added experience of running an escape room, you’ve got to imagine they’ll create something even better.

AIEscape have just announced a slip in their suggested opening dates to mid/late November. Bad news for them, but speaking as someone who’s overwhelmed with rooms at the moment, it probably won’t make much difference to when I head along. Remember that they’re planning on opening four different rooms in one go, so it’s a fairly significant swing in London’s offering.

I’m still waiting for clueQuest to announce the opening of “Revenge of the Sheep”. Still no date from them for the official opening of that room and a quick word a couple of weeks ago made me doubt whether it will be ready for Christmas.

No update on Secret Studio‘s plans to open up a second challenge (“The Sequel”). The website still shows it as an option, but not on the booking page yet.

One site that’s been sitting under the radar for a very long time is containment.zone. Last I heard, booking was due to open by the start of October…

The Crystal Maze have said they’re still on target for an “early 2016” launch, and that they’re close to announcing a date. Probably still four or five months to wait then, but with plenty of things happening in and around London in the interim, I can probably find something to keep myself occupied.

That’s all folks

That’s all I’m aware of. If any of the above is incorrect then let me know, or equally if you’re aware of other news, discounts or competitions, and I’ll include updates in the next edition.

Thanks for reading!