Here’s this week’s (slightly belated) round up of all I’ve heard about the local escape room scene. If there’s anything you think is missing from here or you have some news then let me know via email and I’ll add it in the next update.

Company news and rumours

• London
  • Expanding on the recent trend to use escape rooms for advertising, a new popup is due to appear briefly later this month to advertise the Blu-Ray launch of 10 Cloverfield Lane. Escape from the Bunker is a 45 minute game from the team behind the Escape Rooms. If you want a chance to win tickets, you can enter here.
• Yorkshire and the Humber
  • Liz Cable of the Great Escape UK Unconference fame announced that Code-X opens this week. Test games were played over the weekend with good reviews and tickets were available from Monday. Priced at £18pp and available until late August.
• South East England
  • There are a couple of companies looking at Southampton to open a room but the one that’s first to the plate is Cyantist who already have a couple of games in nearby Bournemouth. Controversially, they’ve opted for a room called the “Crystal Maze” in which you have to collect as many crystals as you can in an hour. Their description claims there are many more puzzles than you can solve in an hour so perhaps particularly good value for the enthusiast?
  • Kent has a fair few escape companies now, but Clue Cracker have gone about as far East as I can imagine, with a venue in Margate. Their venue is situated within Dreamland, something which, from what I can see, is a cross between a fairground and a museum, preserving some of the older funfair style attractions. The game, which as yet seems untitled, is £9 per person.
  • The Panic Room Kent opened up their two new rooms, the Don and Urgency, each for 2-8 players. Get in quick if you want to play though because they get booked up fast!
  • They also got coverage in the local paper, the Kent and Sussex Courier.
  • The Escape Network and Clue HQ Brentwood were at Fling Festival a couple of weeks ago with a mobile escape room that seemed to be popular with festival goers judging by the pictures.
  • Escape Reading got a mention on the Alt Reading website.
  • Little known fact – Southend has the country’s best escape room. You’ll never guess which one it is though.
  • There could be worse escape rooms though. This company seems to be aiming to take some of the fun out of them in the name of corporate team building… or maybe just making them sound as serious as possible to encourage companies to spend their money!
• South West England
  • Cornwall has been looking a bit neglected for a while, but no sooner did I find out about a game due to open in Penzance than another one pops up round the corner. Locked In Cornwall is already open with a single game, the Arion Room, but is set to add a second when the Yong Room is complete.
  • I’m not sure when it opened exactly but Puzzlair has launched a new game in Bristol. The Prison Van claims to be the first game set in a prison van and I’ve got no reason to doubt that’s true. The interior photo suggests that this is going to be a fun game for up to five people.
• North West England
  • The Escape Room already has many venues worldwide and three in the North West and is set to add one more to that collection with Barrow-on-Furness. No details about the rooms, but the venue is right next to the station co-located with a Laser Quest.
  • If Warrington is too far for Mancunians to travel then good news – you’ll soon be able to play Clue HQ more locally. More seriously with Clue HQ Manchester being relatively close to the existing site, it feels like there’s a good chance there won’t be much overlap between the games. No details as yet of location or what the games will be.
  • Trapped In, the Bury operation, are about to open the Ruby Factory another “solve as many puzzles as you can” game.
  • Fancy taking part in a two day course to “make escape room stuff”? Well Andrew Walsh, who runs the “Games for Libraries” site, is organising two. The first, in Manchester, takes place in late August and costs £50 while the second, in Chester, is in mid December costs £180 and includes overnight accommodation. Both events offer budget pricing for those who genuinely can’t afford the ticket price.
  • Cliffhanger Rooms opened their new game, Bank Vault Heist.
• The Midlands
  • Clue HQ Birmingham opened their third game AI-9, a game for 2-6 players that sees you battling against an artifical intelligence that has gone out of control.
  • Tension Games in Lincoln appears to have opened and has four rooms, Time Machine, the Imp and two copies of Magna Carta.
•  Wales
  • Wake up North Wales, your wait is over! Cardiff and Swansea have been seeing all the action but at last, the other half of the country are going to get in on latest trend with the arrival of Ultimate Escape. The plan is to open in late August with two rooms – CSI Murder Mystery and Escape from the Future.
• East of England
  • If you’re the sort of person that loses their head in an escape room then it’s probably best if you stay clear of the new escape room opening in Ely in September. Set in Oliver Cromwell’s House you have to escape from Oliver Cromwell’s men or face execution.
• Scotland
  • The Room in Glasgow are adding yet another game to their collection. This time round it’s the Mystic Room, a game for 2-5 people where you have to find out who killed the oracle.
• Ireland
  • The Sunday Times ran a piece on escape rooms, centring on a location in Dublin. If you have a subscription you can read the full article here.
• Elsewhere
  • The Isle of Man venue, Exit Strategy, opened their fourth game, CSI.

That’s all folks

That’s all I’m aware of. If any of the above is incorrect or if you’re aware of other news, 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!