It’s been a while since I’ve had so many new venue openings to report! It’s a busy month with plenty of new rooms at existing companies too.

Greater London

🔒 It’s rare to see a new company in London, but after opening a branch in Middlesbrough last October, Escape Games have now also opened in Hackney. Their first game is Quarantine (also available at their Teeside branch) in both normal and kids-friendly flavours, and they have three others planned.

🔒 You wait ages and then two come alone at once: international chain Game Over have also opened a new London branch, at Brent Cross. Their games are Alice in Wonderland, Lost City of Atlantis, Nightmare Hotel and School of Magic, all already open.

🔒 Enigma Quests have announced a forthcoming new location in Holborn with not just three new escape rooms but an Escape Room Arcade, which sounds like a challenge arcade with extra emphasis on escape room style puzzles. In theory pre-booking is open for those, though I’m not sure if that can be booked through their website right now.

Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Escape From The Room Wallington: The Cat and the Canary
🔒 Escape Plan (East London): Pushed for Time
🔒 Room Lockdown Romford: Poseidon’s Fury

South East England

🔒 The Slough branch of Bust Out 360 opened Detained, in which you’ve been framed for a murder and must escape a police station.

🔒 Outdoor escape company Escapade launched a new experience, Death At The Theatre – this is a two hour game with actors, based around the streets of Reading.

🔒 In their hometown of Southampton, Houdini’s have opened two rooms at the Tenpin location. One is Captain Blackheart’s Curse, a new design pioneered in Chester last month, and the other is USS Redemption, which previously ran at their Kegworth branch.

🔒 You can never have too many dino games, and the southeast now has another. Survival is the latest room at Hysteria in Chatham.

🔒 Locked In A Room now offer their Wallace & Gromit room in Milton Keynes as well, it having previously been a Bristol exclusive.

Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Escape From The Room High Wycombe: Cabin in the Woods
🔒 Mythologic Escape Rooms (Gillingham): Sneaky Santa
🔒 The Panic Room Gravesend: CSI – The Mafia Murders

South West England

🔒 All those mourning the closure of U-Escape in Bournemouth will be delighted to hear that all three rooms are back open again, with new names (New York Underworld, Cadaver, and The Street Artist) and under new management. They’re now being operated by Arcadia Escape, who I believe are the same folks as Scream Aloud scare attractions, and who also operate The Crypt escape room in Fordingbridge.

🔒 Over in Newlyn, Cornwall’s Great Escapes have a new magic school game – except Platform 9⅝ is set not at the magic school but on the magic train bound for it.

🔒 Social enterprise The Engine closed their room The Conspiracy and replaced it with Witch Way Out?, in which (in witch?) you’re rescuing witches magically trapped in a mirror.

Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Creative Minds Escape Room (Trowbridge): Spellbound
🔒 Locked In – Escape Rooms Cornwall (Camborne): The Smoke House Curse

Wales

🔒 Caerphilly gains an escape venue; Caerphilly Escape Rooms is a new branch for Escape Blackwood, under the new group name South Wales Escape Rooms. Their first room The Mine is now open, with three more in the pipeline.

🔒 On the other side of Wales, Locked In North Wales have also opened a new branch. Theirs is in Towyn, with a room called Cabin In The Woods.

🔒 Adventure Rooms Bridgend opened The Black Queen, previously available at their Cardiff branch.

West Midlands

Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 The Puzzle Room Cannock: Operation Nuke 2

East Midlands

🔒 Indoor golf company Urban Putters have opened three escape rooms: 7 Miles Deep, Experiment X and Quest of the Worthy. That’s out in Vulcan Park along with one of the branches of Escape Lincoln.

🔒 Rushden Escape Rooms have now opened Stranded, which some may remember from its original run at Thinking Outside The Box in Peterborough.

🔒 Space Pod is the latest room at Escape Leicester, in which you need to save yourself from a failing space station.

🔒 Horton’s Emporium now offer a pirate game called Dead Man’s Chest (as of some point earlier this year).

🔒 Grimsby’s new escape company Mission Classified now also offer a Puzzle Wall experience – this is not an escape room as such, but a puzzling challenge whether you attempt to solve a hundred puzzles within an hour. (They also have a Maze Wall if you prefer.)

Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 National Justice Museum (Nottingham): Guilty?

East of England

🔒 Next Level Escape is a new company that will open its doors in Ipswich in a couple of weeks, with Jigsaw’s Lair. The About Us section on their website lists as inspiration an impressive selection of truly first rate escape rooms, which suggests they’re aiming high.

Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 CryptX (Knapwell): Tarot
🔒 EO Escape Rooms (Sudbury): The Great Eggscape
🔒 Oliver Cromwell’s House (Ely): The Tomb of the Templars
🔒 Principal Escape Rooms (Ely): Mystery At The Museum
🔒 Ware Escape Rooms: Toyland Terrors

North West England

🔒 Tomorrow is the first day for Escape Quest’s new game Titterton’s Toffees. Their booking calendar looks pretty booked up for May, and I imagine plenty of you have slots reserved already!

🔒 Opening soon at Cryptic Escape’s Manchester branch is The Scare Floor, with a story that shows inspiration from Monsters Inc.

🔒 Lock Down Escape Exit Games in Warrington also have a new game, the self-explanatory Slaughter Cabin.

Yorkshire & the Humber

🔒 York also has a brand new company, and this one is for kids. Star Street Escapes’s room is called Candy Chaos; it’s a 45 min game intended for children between 5 and 10.

🔒 At Escape Games in Middlesbrough, Trials is a new room where you’ve been accused of witchcraft and need to escape a fiery end.

Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Escapable (Wakefield): Marv the Monkey Presents: The Golden Banana

Scotland

🔒 It’s not open until mid May, but Inveraray Jail in West Scotland are opening a room called The Debtors of 1850. It’s one of the most remote escape locations in the country, but I suspect it’ll be worth the trip – it’s designed by the people behind Reading’s Time Trap.

🔒 Ritual is now open at Escape Reality Edinburgh. The chain doesn’t have a great reputation amongst enthusiasts, but their latest rooms (which are designed in-house) appear to be a step up from the rest.

Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Case Closed (Edinburgh): Radio Nowhere

Also…

🎭 You might have heard about or even played The Locksmith’s Dream, an overnight immersive experience that ran in previous years. This year the creators are running The Key Of Dreams. It’s immersive theatre and mystery solving not an escape room, but I suspect has plenty of cross-over appeal. It comes at a pretty premium price, mind you.

🗞️ Atlas Obscura published an article about escape rooms and the TERPECAs.