Escape In The Towers: Dr Wellington’s Crime & Punishment Lab

By | March 20, 2019

by Escape In The Towers (website)

1 Pound Lane,CT1 2BZ

Canterbury

2-5 players

60 minutes

It's 1994 and you've stumbled across Dr Wellington's abandoned laboratory at the former Canterbury Experimental Electric Company founded in 1883. Dr Wellington based his controversial crime and punishment experiments in the treacherous cells of the former city gaol which has since laid abandoned for 80 years after his sudden and mysterious disappearance. You and your cohorts have just 60 minutes to escape before you are trapped for eternity and in certain mortal danger, sharing the fate of his many victims!
Death is just the final nail in the coffin...
show full description
Thank you for helping keep Escape the Review up to date!
Let us know what needs changing:




If you own or manage this company, you can also claim the listing and update it yourself

Overall rating

Rated between 4 and 4.5 out of 5

based on ratings from 19 users
combined with 4 pro reviews

Your review

Player reviews

d.green26 expert rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Played: 29 Jun 2024 Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
immersivestory-drivengreat hosting
essentialatom experienced rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 29 Jun 2024 Team size: 2 Time taken: 49:24 Outcome: Successful escape!

Sadly, this game arguably misses opportunities that its setting in a genuine former jail offers, with furniture and props mostly unrelated to the space, and fairly routine puzzles (although that isn't to say that we weren't stuck at times). Where codes are required for locks, for instance, it's more fun to have to work out the combination than it is simply to be given it upon completion of an otherwise unrelated puzzle; there's a little too much of the latter here. If this game had been built in an industrial unit or repurposed office space, as is common for escape rooms, you'd find nothing remarkable about it. 

The room does make good use of its setting in one way: with the game set across several cells, there's a cute cluing system that allows the host to tell you that you're in the wrong cell for the puzzle you're working on. They can also give you more specific clues, as is typical, but as a player it was nice to be nudged away from irrelevant areas and given the chance to figure out what I needed to be focusing on, before being given more explicit clues. 

DypanicDuo experienced rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Played: 4 Jul 2023 Team size: 2 Time taken: 43:58 Outcome: Successful escape!
Jen Wells (Get Wells Soon) expert rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Played: 30 May 2023 Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
originalimmersivegreat hosting

Set in the old jail cells, this felt like a very authentic experience that is only possible in an historic building such as this.

Some super puzzles and a lovely host - with a visit to the museum between games - made this a delightful experience.

StaceyF expert rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Played: 21 Aug 2021 Team size: 4 Outcome: Successful escape!
Jet Calver experienced rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Played: 21 Sep 2022 Team size: 4 Time taken: 41
clever

Very enthusiastic host, very friendly. The theme of the room suited the building and was well executed. 

Schteeeve experienced rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Team size: 4 Outcome: Successful escape!
originalimmersivegreat hosting
imrahil experienced rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Team size: 2 Time taken: 34 min Outcome: Successful escape!
PurpleB expert rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Played: 18 Aug 2022 Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!

Fantastic setup in some of the original cells in the old gaol with authentic props.  Sometimes I find prison rooms a bit dark and damp but they've done such a good job at converting the old building that it managed to feel authentic without being grungy.

It's a pretty linear game in a fairly small space so a good one for smaller teams.

kman expert rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Played: 02 Jul 2022 Team size: 4 Time taken: 33m03s Outcome: Successful escape!
immersivegreat hosting

We had Matt again to host us for this game, and he is a superb host.

Set in an actual prison tower and incorporating bits of history and historical props was amazing to see and experience in an escape game.

The puzzles do feel relatively similar, and you go from one padlock to another, but nonetheless I still enjoyed this room, and what it delivers.

c2creviewer experienced rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
🦑cipherdelic virtuoso rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
originalimmersive

Great atmosphere in the cells, and some wonderful props to interact with. We played late in the day in December so it was a little dark in places for my eyes, but the critical props had lights over them. Inventive puzzles, the cell setting and lovely victorian streampunk vibe throughout made this game very immersive and enjoyable.

πŸ”James Bloodworth expert rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Played: 30/11/2021 Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
cleverstory-driven
An interesting story set in the original jail cells, you move from cell to cell solving puzzles to progress.  A wide variety of puzzles are on show here and although you move in a linear fashion, puzzles in each cell can be tackled individually.
Kempshott_fox rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Played: 21 Aug 2021 Team size: 4 Time taken: 46 Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifulimmersive
Matt C experienced rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Played: 25/05/2021 Team size: 2 Time taken: 60 mins Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifulcleverimmersivequite difficult😨creepy
Robin Harris & Michael Bailey experienced rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Played: 01/03/2020 Team size: 4 Time taken: 39 minutes and 55 seconds Outcome: Successful escape!
Mike S expert rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Sabrina (The Overthinkers) expert rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Played: 14/07/2019 Time taken: 52:50:00 Outcome: Successful escape!
Barry Hammond expert rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
Played: 28/10/2017 Team size: 4 Time taken: 46.29 Outcome: Successful escape!

Reviews by escape room review sites

Crime & Punishment Lab is built within the Westgate, Canterbury's medieval gatehouse, a local landmark and grade I listed building, among the most spectacularly authentic locations I've seen used for an escape game.

Although the towers date back to the 14th Century, the game is set in Victorian times, drawing on a more recent part of the building's history when the Westgate was used as a gaol. The game uses genuine old cells as well as plenty of historical equipment and curios. In the initial b...

Rooms don't come much more authentic than this one - set in one of the old towers in Canterbury's walls. Great puzzles and GMing led to a very enjoyable experience.
I love a venue with an interesting setting; even better with historical significance; and a triple whammy when the game itself leans into the story of the surroundings. Escape In The Towers is a prime example of successfully marrying their vintage building with relevant narratives.
If you manage to secure a location like an 1830s-built former jail in Canterbury, it’s probably tempting to make a straight up prison escape room. It’s to the credit of this game that it instead just takes the cells as a jumping-off point for a sinister story about human experimentation. Rather than be prisoners in the 1800s, you’re explorers in the 1990s rediscovering the abandoned lab of a mad professor, tasked with discovering exactly what he was up to, and of course, avoiding the same fate.
Crime and Punishment Lab felt like an early-generation escape room despite being quite new, but pulled it off with a high standard of theming and a huge stack of puzzles that we found very enjoyable.

See also