October news and rumours

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

Nothing this month… although 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: 20 (plus 4 outside London)
  • October reviews [some now here…]:
    • The Rombo Code – Capitulo 43 [Madrid]
    • The Rombo Code – Casanova [Madrid]
    • Fox in a Box – Zombie Lab [Madrid]
    • Exit Games – the Lab [Madrid]
    • Exit Games – Cold War [Madrid]
    • A Door in a Wall – Appetite for Murder (October)
    • Enigma Quests (October)

News and Rumours

(HT: exitgames) Probably the most interesting news this month is that Escape Hunt London’s venue is being taken over by Escape Entertainment. I’m still not quite sure what’s going on here – a couple of months ago I saw that Escape Hunt were advertising their London franchise as being available. Now, when you go to the Escape Hunt website, it says they’re only taking bookings till early October and provides a link to the new venue, which you can book from 12th onwards. It’s got 8 rooms, 6 called “Bank Heist” and 2 called “Prohibition Pandemonium”. Hat tip to exitgames for spotting the change.

If Escape Entertainment stay at 8 rooms, that gives clueQuest the chance to grab the title of “largest escape venue in Europe” when they open “Revenge of the Sheep”, since I believe they’ve room for nine games at their location. Still no date from them for the official opening of that room though. I’m thinking late November, just in time for the Christmas rush and recent Facebook posts suggests something is about to be announced!

I mentioned in a previous post that it looked like Room Escapeist would be opening up a room in Essex and I was excited because it seemed like it would be at a very secret location indeed. By the looks of it, they’ve taken on a ClueHQ franchise. Clue HQ have confirmed that they’re opening a centre at the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker. I don’t think there can be many better venues for an escape room than a secret nuclear bunker, so I’m pleased to see that one of the best brands in the UK has taken it on. That’s within striking distance of London, so we’ve already organised two crack team of troops to lay seige to their venue some time later this year. ClueHQ being regarded as one of the toughest providers in the UK, we naturally decided to take on both of their rooms in one evening…

Lock’d have announced the opening of their new room “Perpetuum Mobile” which, along side “Grandpa’s Last Will” and “Museum Warehouse“, puts them at the forefront of London escape rooms with three different rooms.

Following their successful crowdsourcing campaign, Enigma Quests are set to open, “School of Witchcraft and Wizardry” on 24th October, after a couple of weeks of beta testing. We’re already booked in, so expect a review by the end of the month.

AIEscape continue to tease with photos of their installation, but no firm word on their opening dates. I’m guessing early November given what I’ve seen so far, but I think we should get a firmer idea in the next few weeks. Their plan is to open all four rooms in one go, thus making them the leader in variety in London!

No update on Secret Studio’s plans to open up a second room. The website 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…

Congrats to Lady Chastity’s Reserve on their Brighton opening and good luck in what’s moved from being a huge gap to being a crowded market in one month. I’m sure they’ll do well though, and with only a couple of rooms in town, they’ll probably get more referrals than they lose business from single-play teams.

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!

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