Happy Halloween! 🎃 And as usual for this time of year, the October update is swamped with all the new Christmas escape rooms opening their little elf-shaped doors in the coming weeks. Here’s the list of new UK games for October:
Greater London
🔒 Lots going on at Escape London’s Islington branch: they’ve has just opened horror room Echoes of Madness, following Space Pod in September. Both are designs also available in Leicester. They’ll also open seasonal room The Great Christmas Lock-up from mid-month.
🎄 Room Lockdown Hornchurch also have an Xmas game opening soon, with Christmas Chaos.
🔒 With rather more of an affinity for Halloween, Screamworks will open Granny 2 on 20 Nov, sequel to their original murderous pensioner game.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎃 clueQuest – The LIVE Escape Game (Central London): Post Mortem
🔒 Horror Escape (South London): Coven
South East England
🔒 In Basingstoke, Pier Pressure have taken over what used to be Exciting Escapes, and next week they open their doors with two games: Pride and Predicament and Sweets & Suspicions.
🔒 The Lift in Brighton opened their latest game Seconds From Disaster, and it’s an unusual one – based at flight sim centre Gate20, it’s „part tabletop mystery, part investigation, part flight simulator“.
🎄 Mythologic Escape Rooms have a new branch in Maidstone, and while the permanent rooms are still in development, they’ll open with Santa’s Workshop Rescue for the Christmas season.
🎄 Gatwick Escape Rooms is one of several Know Escape branches which will offer new seasonal room Christmas Cat-astrophe, starring their familiar cat lady Aunt Edna.
🎄 More tinsel tangles in Horsham, with Elf Intervention 2: Elves on Strike from Major Mind Games, open from the 20th.
🎄 The Bracknell branch of Pier Pressure will run The Great Elfscape, previously available in Brighton and Welwyn.
🔒 TimeQuest in Paddock Wood have been running Christmas games every year since before it was cool. Their game for 2026 is Elf Magic 7: Ready, Set, Snow!, open from 1st Dec.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎄 Mythologic Escape Rooms (Gillingham): The Grunch
🎄 Pier Pressure Brighton: Nutcracker Nonsense
Channel Islands
🔒 On Guernset, MTG Escapes will soon open their Christmas room No Claus For Alarm, plus a new mobile experience The Lost Amulet of Anubis.
South West England
🔒 St Austell now has an escape room (or more accurately, Bugle does, just to the north): new indie company Rockhill Escape Rooms are now up and running with their room Who Let The Dogs Out.
🔒 All Stars Escape Rooms in Weston-super-mare have just opened a new room with a magical theme, The Wandkeeper’s Oath.
🔒 Carnival of Screams is the newest addition to the line-up at Escape Plymouth.
🎄 Also in Plymouth, Escapism are opening Undercooked, an unusually culinary-themed take on the save-Christmas storyline.
🎄 Escape The Game in Bovey Tracey will soon open this year’s installment of their annual Santa Escape series, with Santa Escape – The Christmas Cookie.
🎄 The Xmas room from Falmouth’s Kernow Escape will be Helston We Have A Problem, where you need to fix mission control to guide Santa; and now I’ll be picturing him as Tom Hanks with a big white beard.
🎄 Santa’s jeopardy never ends; at Lock & Code Escape Rooms Taunton, the mission will be S.O.S (Save Our Santa).
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎄 DreadLock Escape Rooms (Bodmin): Detention Elf-Style
🎄 Enigma Escape Cornwall (Truro): Operation Guiding Light
Last call for:
❗️ Escape Rooms Cheltenham: Operation Foresight (closing 20 Nov)
❗️ Salisbury Escape Rooms: A Case of Murder and Marigolds (closing 31 Dec)
Wales
🔒 The latest branch of Escape Hunt to open is in Cardiff, and offers Aladdin & The Magic Vault, Curse of the Pharaoh, Dracula, Excalibur, Journey to Atlantis, Our Finest Hour, The Chocolate Factory.
🔒 Spa and activity centre Bala Lake Hotel now have a second escape room in their activity roster, this one being Mission Control.
🔒 In Carmarthenshire, Mansion of Mystery have also opened a second room, Frankenstein’s Reanimation Chamber.
🔒 And Treforest Escape Rooms in Pontypridd are dipping a toe into scary theming, with new room The Dollmakers Curse.
West Midlands
🎭 The Portal is the latest offering at Clue HQ Birmingham; this is not an escape room but a challenge arcade gauntlet of mini-games.
🔒 Already alive at Escape Live Birmingham is their new room Frankenstein’s Lab.
🎄 Double tinsel at Top Escape Rooms in their new location; (Worcester): Freezy The Snowman is now open, and will shortly be joined by Elf School. The former was previously available at Lakes Escapes.
🎄 Escape Quests in Ross-on-Wye will run also two seasonal rooms this year: Advent Adventure and Santa’s Lost His Marbles. The latter is another one you might have seen at Lakes Escapes in the past.
🎄 Break Free’s Stoke branch are running Xmas room Candy Cane Catastrophe.
East Midlands
🎄 Chesterfield Escape Rooms is the second of several Know Escape branches which will offer new seasonal room Christmas Cat-astrophe, starring their familiar cat lady Aunt Edna; they’ll also run a second Xmas room, Dear Santa.
🔒 Murder on the Daventry Express opens tomorrow at Daventry Miniature Race Cars, putting a twist on the usual murder mystery format: this time you’re the plotter.
Last call for:
❗️ Escape Halse (closing 08 Nov)
East of England
🔒 Principal Escape Rooms’s new Witchford address has opened its doors, bringing back their pop-up Nightmare At The Museum as a permanent game.
🔒 Clue Finders in Basildon have opened both kid-friendly pirate adventure Ginger Beard’s Treasure, and Phasmophobia: The Fear of Ghosts, a sequel to their original Phasmophobia room.
🔒 Hunt for the Aurora Cluster is the new room at Absolutely Escapes Hemel Hempstead, and while they give few details, the artwork suggests a mining theme.
🔒 The Boy Out Of Time is another addition to EO Escape Rooms’s tabletop case games.
🎄 The Cluetopia group are running an Xmas room at their Ipswich branch, Candy Cane Lane.
🎄 Hourglass Escapes in Downham Market will open their festive game Jingle All The Way, next week, with another problem threatening to spoil Christmas.
🎄 Another festive double-bill at Keylock Games in Wickford, with quiz challenge Merry Quizmas and a more traditional escape room Santa’s Lost It.
🎄 The latest disaster to befall poor Santa is the loss of his cat, brought to you in The Igloo Cat-astrophe from Suffolk Escape Room in Saxmundham.
🎄 Whereas in Bury St Edmunds, The Evidence Room has you hunting for duplicate Father Christmases, in The Santa Clones.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Great Escapists (Royston): The Thief and the Highwayman
North West England
🔒 With their new room The Bite of 64, Breakout Manchester are pioneering the fusion theme of swinging sixties plus zombies.
🔒 In Wirral, West Kirby Escape Room opened new room Traitor in the Lab, and it’s a narrative sequel to their original game.
🎄 Clue Collectors (Heywood): Mr Claus’ Christmas Cravings opens on 01 Dec
🔒 Escapism Chester are covering all the bases; paranormal thrills with Ghost Hunt, now open, and festive challenges with Elf Learning Facility later in November.
🎄 Santa’s having still more problems in Edenfield at Evadare, in Santa Claustrophobia.
🎄 And at Lakes Escapes in Workington, his sleigh’s been clamped in Clamped Claus. Poor guy just can’t catch a break.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎄 Code to Exit (Altrincham): ‚Twas the Heist Before Christmas
🔒 Compendium Escape Rooms (Bury): Bad Elf 3: Trouble at the North Pole
Yorkshire and the Humber
🔒 The Escapologist is expanding to York. Their new branch opens on 20th Nov, with Hadrig’s Forgotten Forest, Mission to Mars, and The Grand Continental Express. They also have festive makeovers of their normal rooms at other branches, which may or may not include fresh puzzles: The Cell – Save Santa in Castleford, Clu3do at Christmas in Leeds, Christmas In Wonderland in Gateshead.
🔒 Kids‘ play centre The Hidden Castle in Skipton are briefly running a pop-up escape room for families, called The Curse of The Hidden Castle.
🔒 The Coven is a witchy new escape room at A Place To Escape in Redcar.
🎄 The Doncaster branch of Enigma Rooms will be running both Arctic Academy and Snowman from the start of December.
🔒 Whereas their Pontefract branch has just opened their new Blackbeard adventure The Last Pirate, in which you must put to rest the soul of Edward Teach.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎃 Enigma Rooms Doncaster: Kooky Family
🎄 Escape Room Scarborough: Saving Santa
North East England
🔒 Escape Newcastle are expanding the line-up at their city centre location, and now offer 8 Years Later and Witchcraft & Wizardry.
🎄 Back In Time For Christmas at Escape Rooms Durham takes you back to 1993 for a time-travelling Christmas room.
🔒 Some presents will need your help to deliver them in Santa’s Last Delivery at Northumberland Escape Rooms in Morpeth, open from early December.
Scotland
🎄 The Locked Door Escape Games in Aberdeen will be running new game Mr Snowman’s Meltdown, from early December, in addition to returning game Santa’s Workshop.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎃 Aberdeen Science Centre: Halloween Escape Room
And here’s the annual link for a map and full list of Christmas games: https://escapethereview.co.uk/location/xmas.