Escape Colchester: 221B Baker Street

By | March 20, 2019

by Escape Colchester (website)

26 Long Wyre Street, CO1 1LJ

Colchester

2-6 players

60 minutes

Having been enlisted by Moriarty, your task is to break into 221B Baker Street, defeat Sherlock's failsafes and retrieve his prized possessions.
Hurry though, Sherlock and Dr Watson are hot on your tail!
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Overall rating

Rated between 2.5 and 3.5 out of 5

based on ratings from 40 users
combined with 2 pro reviews

Your review

Player reviews

Anonymous rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
immersive
Simon (The Overthinkers) expert rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 2 Jan 2023 Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
Jose Adrian experienced rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Played: Team size: 2 Time taken: Outcome: Successful escape!
Terraverte rated this:Rated between 2.5 and 2.5 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
plainunoriginaltedious

Having just played Escape the Seven Seas and loved it we played this game as we had time to spare…and wished we hadn’t bothered. The theming is okay, like any other Sherlock/detective type room, but the puzzles are all a bit mundane, and there’s one in the second room that was both tedious and irritating. Not one we’d recommend.

spbc expert rated this:Rated between 2.5 and 2.5 out of 5
Played: 1 Apr 2024 Team size: 2
broken techpoor hosting
arandzom experienced rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
TeamDenton experienced rated this:Rated between 2.5 and 2.5 out of 5
Played: 14/02/24 Team size: 2 Time taken: 57.40 Outcome: Successful escape!
plain
We may have just been very bad at this room, but it took us forever to get started. There were some basic things that could have been better signposted or linked up to help the players - we spent a lot of time filling in every padlock so something to indicate where a code might go would be quite welcome. I don't really enjoy the tactic of making a room feel longer by making you guess where to put the codes. The room was quite plain and the inclusion of a really broken violin felt a bit sad? The puzzles themselves were okay and we got through them quite quickly but we wasted loads of time in this room so there was quite a lot of standing around (maybe that was just us!). Overall an okay room but could easily be improved with a bit of extra care. Host was really nice.
escapeartist1212 expert rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
story-drivenfamily friendly
A Blacksmith expert rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 5 May 2018 Team size: 3 Outcome: Successful escape!
brilamb rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 29 Oct 2023 Team size: 6 Time taken: 32
We enjoyed the game and it had some unique puzzles, I have just rated it lower as it was a very small game like most at this venue and was far too easy.
MaliceInWonderland rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
Jen Wells (Get Wells Soon) expert rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 23 Dec 2023 Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
great hosting

A straight-forward padlock and code escape room with decent puzzle flow and some nice details.

We flew through it so it would be great for beginners or families, as it's not tricky and is very linear but there are some nice moments that we enjoyed.

Jon was our host and he was an absolute delight.

Pegz241 rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 21/10/2022 Team size: 2 Outcome: Failed 🙁
Lindsey Carey (Dinner Jackets) expert rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Played: 1 Nov 2023 Team size: 3 Time taken: 36:03 Outcome: Successful escape!
clevergreat hosting

Happy to see a new venue in the city, played 2 games so far and thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks to Amelie for awesome hosting.

Brandon experienced rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
jontheescapegoat rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
story-driven
Lorraine Downing experienced rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
clevergreat hostingfamily friendlyquite easy
Anonymous rated this:Rated between 2.5 and 2.5 out of 5
Speedy Sloth expert rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
immersive
Oscar rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
immersiveillogicalunoriginal

I love the Sherlock Holmes theme, and there were a lot of fun props and references here. It isn't very imaginative or inspiring though, you are really just going through about 20 numerical padlocks. The 2 or 3 puzzles which didn't use padlocks were clunky and obtuse. It's also not clear why you're playing Moriarty in this room, surely everyone fantasizes about being Sherlock?

🎲A Jones experienced rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 2 Apr 2018 Team size: 4 Time taken: 37:18 Outcome: Successful escape!
🤘The Pick of Destiny expert rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Anonymous rated this:Rated between 2.5 and 2.5 out of 5
Outcome: Successful escape!
broken techpoor hosting
BenMill experienced rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Team size: 6 Outcome: Successful escape!
quite easy
Jordan Brown experienced rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 5 Feb 2019 Team size: 4 Time taken: 34:57 Outcome: Successful escape!
SiSitAndWait rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 22 Jan 2022 Team size: 4 Time taken: 37:40 Outcome: Successful escape!
family friendlyunoriginal

If this was your first escape room it is a great introduction. For us there was nothing new or different about the game but I cannot find many things to criticise the game for. We flew through it as the puzzles were nothing out of the ordinary. A solid game though.

LockAndMe experienced rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 14 Oct 2021 Team size: 3 Outcome: Successful escape!

This room was good fun. Enjoyed the puzzles, some clever things. Theming was nice and worked well with the storyline too. Locks wise, it was busy, lots of number locks and it was a case of find a number, try the locks, which is not terrible, but frustrating if you have worked the number out wrong.

For what it was though, I enjoyed it. I got told that some of the Escape franchises dont look after their rooms (this is my only experience with the escape franchise) but from what I saw, the room was clean, nothing was broken or worn, and i would go and play more of their rooms without hesitation. 

abooth expert rated this:Rated between 2 and 2 out of 5
Played: 21 Jan 2022 Team size: 1 Time taken: 48 Outcome: Successful escape!
plainunoriginal

It's....fine. Really basic design, very easy. I ran it on my own in 48 mins without really needing a clue. A bit near the end really isn't in keeping with the theme. Also it might seem fussy but a *lot* of the puzzles are really poorly written - really bad grammar and spelling.

Anonymous experienced rated this:Rated between 2.5 and 2.5 out of 5
Team size: 5 Outcome: Successful escape!
ratsontour expert rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Team size: 4 Outcome: Successful escape!
Amy Lowson rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Played: 18/02/2019 Team size: 4 Outcome: Successful escape!
Tim Cooper expert rated this:Rated between 2.5 and 2.5 out of 5
Team size: 2 Time taken: 42:00 Outcome: Successful escape!
illogicalplainunoriginal
🔐James Bloodworth expert rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 19/09/2020 Team size: 2 Time taken: 54:00 Outcome: Successful escape!
Good beginner room with a mix of puzzles and an optional one if you want the credit, couple of potentially immersion breaking puzzles right at the end but still some good ideas/reveals.
Anonymous rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
🦡cipherdelic virtuoso rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
🦡cipherdelic virtuoso rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Tom experienced rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Played: 2018 Team size: 2 Time taken: 41.35 Outcome: Successful escape!

Met up with a good friend to do this room, our first one together. Either we make a great team or the room was quite easy as we got a decent time! Room is quite basic with a few surprises. Enough to get my friend hooked. Extra bonus points to this venue as I left my car keys by accident and they drove across town to bring them to me!! Yay

Brian experienced rated this:Rated between 2.5 and 2.5 out of 5
Team size: 3 Outcome: Successful escape!
Claire Stephens rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Played: Team size: Time taken:
Richard Horton rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5

Reviews by escape room review sites

Many Sherlock-themed escape games need an excuse for why the great man himself isn't present - perhaps he's been kidnapped, or has died, or is simply too busy with more important cases. Escape's version takes a novel approach: here you are in fact the bad guys, sent by Moriarty to infiltrate Sherlock's apartment and steal a particular one of his possessions.

Although the Escape venues tend not to invest too heavily in the room decorations, 221B Baker Street looks more impressive than their norm...

Theming and Set: Lovely, until the weird timey-wimey wobble at the end. Searching: Not really enough to keep the teens occupied while solving one riddle at a time.

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