This is the time of year when the list of new escape rooms includes both Halloween and Christmas pop-ups, battling for dominance – this year it looks like the pumpkins have narrowly triumphed over the tinsel, for now. Here’s the full list of new UK escape rooms for September:
Greater London
🎭 Bristol experience centre Wake The Tiger expands to London: Absurd City opens at Westfield shopping centre (the Shepherd’s Bush one not the Stratford one) from the 15th.
🎃 clueQuest often do seasonal re-skins of their rooms, but Halloween pop-up Post Mortem is not just a re-skin of Plan 52 – it involves new puzzles as well as new theming and story.
🔒 Horror Escape in Peckham open their witchy new experience Coven this weekend; they rate it as among their scariest of their crop of horror games.
🔒 Area X is a new alien conspiracy game now open at Escape From The Room’s main Epsom/Sutton branch.
🎭 Horror experience company Screamworks have just closed Granny, but have a scare experience for Halloween called Hell’s Waiting Room (which may or may not involve puzzles as well as scares), as well as the sequel Granny 2 to follow.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎃 Room Lockdown Hornchurch: The Halloween Invitation
South East England
🎄 In addition to their year-round Christmas room, Pier Pressure Brighton are now taking bookings for a new Christmas game, Nutcracker Nonsense.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🎄 Mythologic Escape Rooms (Gillingham): The Grunch
South West England
🔒 Putting Barnstaple back on the escape rooms map, new company Fuddled Escape Rooms is now open with their first room The Missing Slippers.
🔒 A little way to the north, Venture Games is a company in Ilfracombe that opened in April, offering The Lost Listening Station (as well as a rage room and a splatter room).
🔒 It’s also been running since April, but climbing centre The Bunker in Torquay also offer a murder mystery escape room named Murder at Marwood Manor.
🎄 Enigma Escape Cornwall in Truro announced an Xmas room called Operation Guiding Light, available from December in addition to their existing option Turkey dinner.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 11th Hour Escape Rooms Limited Melksham: Avast Fortune
West Midlands
🔒 The city centre branch of Escape Hunt Birmingham added Dracula and Jewel of India to their roster of games.
🔒 Escape Time Lichfield now offer a selection of VR escape games alongside their physical rooms.
East Midlands
🎭 Daventry Miniature Race Cars (jointly with Logic Lock) have a new game, The Grand Miniature Puzzle Hunt. This is a puzzle trail spread out through their main exhibit area – I’m not certain whether it’s self-directed or hosted and timed.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Dr Trilby’s Escape Rooms (Daventry): Jo-Jo’s Jungle Rescue, Murder Case: The Accused, Zone 13: The Zombie Trap
East of England
🔒 Great Escapists at Royston Museum will shortly open The Thief and the Highwayman, a museum heist theme that’s replacing the recently closed Operation Overlord.
Last call for:
❗️ Keylock Games (Wickford): Madame Castello’s Fortune Telling Parlour and Nobody Loves Robot (closing 31 Oct)
North West England
🔒 The Wigan branch of Adrenaline Escape opened Captured, pitting you against a vengeful antagonist.
🎄 Code to Exit in Altrincham will be running a Christmas room this winter, named ‘Twas the Heist Before Christmas, where you must remove yourselves from Santa’s naughty list.
🔒 Compendium in Bury will run Bad Elf 3: Trouble at the North Pole from December.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Contained Liverpool: Vampire Hunters
Yorkshire and the Humber
🔒 Escapable in Wakefield have now opened Penny Sweets: Pick & Mix Panic – note that this is a re-branded version of their Christmas room North Pole Panic, adapted to run the rest of the year.
🔒 Carnival Chaos sounds like a cross between a carnival theme and a heist story; in Take The Exit’s latest you need to sneak in to get a Golden Ticket, and is available from the 4th.
🎃 Enigma Rooms Doncaster have a Halloween pop-up Kooky Family; this is a 30min family-friendly experience.
🎄 Whereas Escape Room Scarborough’s announced Saving Santa, available from November.
North East England
🎃 The Halloween pop-up from The Detective Rooms in Durham is The Last Guest at Pepperthorn Hall, and seems to be social deduction rather than escaping; open in late October only.
Scotland
🎃 Aberdeen Science Centre will be running another pop-up room; this one’s for Halloween, and is named, er, Halloween Escape Room.
🎃 For October only, Closeburn Escape Rooms will run Halloween pop-up The Bell Witch.
🎭 Team Machine in Edinburgh have now opened their escape/activity hybrid experience for kids, Spy Academy.