January tends to be a quiet month, and that’s mostly true this year – but we also have no fewer than three entirely new escape companies opening their doors, as well as some companies expanding to new locations.
Greater London
🔒 Treasure or Treason is a temporary game designed by social club / youth group Kaleidoscope, available in Romford until 16th Feb.
🔒 There’s lots going on at Room Lockdown from the look of it – they’ve opened Lawless Frontier at their Hornchurch branch and Legacy at the Romford one, with another four (!) games under development for Romford.
Southeast England
🔒 The new High Wycombe branch of Escape From The Room have now opened their copy of Old Maid Milly.
🔒 Escape Plan LIVE (that’s the Chatham company not the Shoreditch one!) opened Seance: Reborn, a revamped version of their existing Seance game.
🔒 Other World Escapes in Portsmouth opened The Seaside, suitably enough for a company based on the coast. Note that this is based over Kingfisher Caravan Park in Gosport, not in their main Portsmouth location.
🔒 Lab Rats is a new game available from The Panic Room – note that this is one of their entry level games on offer in the Don’t Panic Store, intended to be suitable for beginners (perhaps also for solo enthusiasts?).
🔒 Pressure Point in Ashford have reopened their leaderboard game The Mayflower Dagger, through to 28th April.
Southwest England
🔒 Another company for Swindon; Escape Room HQ launches with zombie game Subject Z tomorrow, with Holy Grail to follow later in February and another two rooms in the works. (They’re no relation to Escape Rooms HQ in Torbay/Dartmouth.)
West Midlands
🔒 Cannock Chase have now re-opened following their move to their new location in Brownhills, with not only their existing room The Bunker, but with all new room The Safehouse.
East Midlands
🔒 Cypherquest in Boston have now opened their third game, a magic-themed room named Enigma Academy: The Wizard’s Trials.
East of England
🔒 Exit Rooms is a new venue in Cambridge linked to Cambridge Escape Rooms. Their first room is Victoria’s Christmas Challenge; travelling enthusiasts should note that they might have played it previously at 11th Hour in Bromham.
🔒 Cluetopia’s Ipswich branch have a new room, Dr Duplicate’s Clonemageddon – which as you might guess is a sequel to the similarly named game previously available at their Harwich branch.
🔒 Escape Ipswich also have a new sequel game of sorts – in that the Da Vinci room they’ve opened is not the chain’s usual Da Vinci room, it’s a new design called The Renaissance Genius – Da Vinci.
Yorkshire & the Humber
🔒 Grimsby gains an escape venue: Mission Classified opens its doors in a couple of days with Operation Hercules and another room in the works; they also offer axe throwing, mini golf and karaoke.
🔒 Middlesbrough newcomer Escape Games have now opened their third room, zombie themed Quarantine.
🔒 The Great Escape Game Leeds have closed Haunted and in a couple of days will open a new supernatural horror room to replace it, called Soul Searchers: The Curse of Grimstone Lane.
Northeast England
From last month’s update:
🔒 The Riddle Room Forest Hall (Newcastle upon Tyne): Zombie Apocalypse: Outbreak
Northern Ireland
🔒 It’s been around since last summer, but Cluerooms NI is a new(ish) company in Newcastle, County Down. They have a 45 minute escape room called Bunker Bus-Ter, along with axe throwing and shuffleboard.