London news and rumours – August 2016

news

Welcome to the June 2016 edition of the escape rumours post. Note that this is about London (and a little further afield). I do a separate (terse!) weekly post about UK news or you can read more in depth (although not quite so up-to-date) news on exitgames.co.uk.

Competitions and special offers

There are a few offers for London games this month.

  • Do Stuff Escape Games have a 20% off code for August games. See below for details.
  • Escape Games London are running an introductory Groupon offer. I’d recommend reading my review before signing up.
  • Quest Room have re-opened their Groupon offer. Again, you should read my review before purchasing.

Finally, 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.

Plans

Somehow it turned into a busy July with a total of nine escape rooms. Check out the front page for reviews, although three of those are yet to be published… They’ll be there soon!

If you’re more interested in what the future brings, here’s my current list of bookings:

  • August
    • 1: The Game’s Afoot
    • 18: Mutiny
  • September
    • Budapest! Yes, I’m dragging a bunch of fellow escapers off to the European capital of escaping for a long weekend of being locked in rooms. We’re still deciding what we’ll play, but you can bet that the Pirate Cave will be involved! If you’ve got any suggestions, then drop me an email or comment below!
  • October
    • 1: Escape
      • Area 51
      • Casino Escape
      • Da Vinci

Yes – that looks unusually short. Don’t worry – I’m planning on packing in quite a few during late August and obviously Budapest will have a few, but they’re yet to be booked as I’ve been procrastinating!

News and Rumours

Wow, it was a busy month for news. So much so that I’m keeping it to the absolute bare essentials. Sorry if you like the fluff!

First off Escape threw the doors open to their rooms on 1st August bringing Casino Escape, Area 51 and da Vinci to their new London venue in Shepherd’s Bush. It’s great to have some tried and tested games coming to London. Initial reports from an enthusiast friend suggest that Casino Escape is the best of the three. If you’re looking for my opinion then you’ll have to wait till October when I’ll be playing the three back-to-back! Prices vary from £55-£110 depending on numbers although if you’re playing two player from Monday to Thursday you can play for just £48.

Do Stuff Escape opened on 4th August in Battersea. At present, they’ve got a single game – Hostage Hideout. In the game, much to my surprise, you yourself aren’t taken hostage and are instead in a safe place but must piece together the clues to escape the room and, presumably, free the hostages. Games cost £80-100 for 2-5 players. Off peak (Mon-Fri before 4:30pm) all games are a fixed £80. Use AUGUST20 discount code for 20% off on bookings during the month of August.

Inside Out Escape will be based up in Islington, North London and are due to open on 13th September, if all goes to plan. They look set to open with a single game, Finding Sherlock Holmes. London’s been in need of a good Sherlock Holmes story, so fingers crossed that this fits the bill!

Clue Trace are just round the corner in Hackney and are also set to open with a single room, Mind Crime. They’ve got quite an unusual story where you play the part of mind thieves who must search the thoughts of a white collar criminal to escape the game. I’m certainly excited about the kind of puzzles and set design that this theme could produce. Reading the website suggests they’ll eventually be opening a second identical room, so if you’re the sort of team that likes to play in parallel then it might be worth waiting a short while. They also plan to open two additional separate rooms, Mission Critical and Mission Forever. More details when I have them!

No official announcement yet, but Escape Rooms, the London Bridge company which brought us Room 33 and Pharaoh’s Chamber have updated their website to show a second venue over in Aldgate. No details on what they’ll be doing there but hopefully (given I missed it) they’ll do a full version of their Bunker Escape Room.

If you’re curious about what goes on behind the scenes then one of the about-to-open escape rooms in London is blogging about their experience. It should be interesting to read about the day-to-day activities and find out about some of the more mundane parts of launching one of these games that we love to play. You can read all about it on Locked Room London.

Locked In A Room have put their 13 room opening back by a couple of weeks to mid August. Reminder for those who’ve forgotten – this will be the biggest escape venue in the UK and probably Europe, taking up to 74 people simultaneously (yes, one of the rooms is presumably restricted to four people) and perfect for corporate events. Enthusiasts shouldn’t get too excited though – in spite of the thirteen rooms, there are only two distinct games to play. Still – two good games (judging by Bristol feedback) isn’t to be sneezed at!

I posted a while back about City Mazes coming to London. It seems to be a bit on again, off again, with the balance swinging back in favour of them opening a London branch this month. Certainly the website indicates there might be a City Mazes venue coming to London soon. No more details – I’ll keep my eye on it and let you know.

No updates from Claustrophobia, Clue Adventures or Escape Zone London. I’ll let you know if I hear more.

On the borders

I’m London focused, but the M25 doesn’t actually have passport control, so occasionally I look a little further afield. This month a shout out for Clue Cracker, a new venue in Margate. They’ve had a fun video blog in the build up, got plenty of media in on the first day and generally sound like they’re putting on a great show. Margate’s just a little far for me up in North London, but if I were somewhere more central, I’d certainly be considering a day out by the seaside to check them out. If you’re in the area then why not give them a try and let me know how you get on!

That’s all folks

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

Thanks for reading!

2 Comments


  1. // Reply

    So far so impressed by Escape (Shepherd’s Bush). We did Casino last Wednesday and set a room record (not really an achievement on its third day of opening). Staff are really very friendly indeed and know their stuff. Got Area 51 tomorrow and Da Vinci next Wednesday and will stick up reviews in due course.


  2. // Reply

    Would have liked to have played Escape earlier, but the opening offer was good enough that I wanted to get a large group out – we’ve got three teams playing the three rooms back-to-back. Plus, with Summer holidays and a trip to Budapest, it was always going to be tough to get a date everyone could make.

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