Short but sweet – in at least one case literally – here’s the list of new UK escape rooms for May.
(Due to time constraints I put this together in advance, meaning it may be missing some rooms announced near the end of the month; but I’ll include any omissions in next month’s list.)
Greater London
🔒 A new venue in London is a rare event, though this one’s an expansion not a new company – Escape have opened a third address, this one in Hammersmith, with a pair of entirely new rooms: Things Are Strange and Young Wednesday.
🔒 Enigma Quests have now closed the three rooms at their original location, but from the 21st will open the new three in Holborn alongside their Escape Room Arcade: Inventor’s Odyssey Through Time, The Billion Pound Heist, and The World of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
🔒 Go Ape Battersea now offer an escape room called Codebreakers, though it takes place at ground level not up in the treetops.
🔒 And Escape Rooms at London Bridge, one of the capital’s longest-running companies, replaced Room 33 with new game The Elixir of Life.
From last month’s update:
🔒 Spyscape (Central London): Spygames, Spyscape
🔒 Room Lockdown Hornchurch: Twister
Southeast England
From last month’s update:
🔒 ClueCapers Limited (Winchester): The Crusader’s Collectible
🔒 Other World Escapes Portsmouth: Pirate’s Cave
🔒 Escape Hunt Canterbury: Aladdin & The Magic Vault, Curse of the Pharaoh, Dracula, Jewel of India
Channel Islands
From last month’s update:
🔒 MTG Escapes (Guernsey): Butcher’s Basement
Southwest England
🔒 Enigma Escape in Truro have now opened their new Lovecraftian horror room, Fear of the Unknown – this is a 90 min game which promises “collectible items” and “multiple endings to achieve”.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Escapism Plymouth: Oceanic Panic
Wales
🔒 Mr Holt’s in Llangefni – which is a family entertainment destination as well as a chocolate and doughnut shop – now offers an escape room called Fix The Factory, which may be an unusually authentic chocolate factory theme.
🔒 Having been running an escape room for over two years now, Plantasia’s Tropical Zoo now have a second game available, Poachers’ Lair. I’m assuming the game design for this one too was by The Escape Game Swansea.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Houdini’s Escape Room Experience Cardiff: Creepy Carnival, Escape From R.M.S. Titanic, Space Break
West Midlands
🔒 Black Hawk Laser have opened ‘new’ game Temptress Mine – I’m not sure whether this is the same Temptress Mine previously available here or an all new revamped version.
🔒 Hereford Cathedral have replaced their escape room with a new design called The Shrine Keeper; as before it’s available on selected dates and times only.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Alderford Escape Islands (Whitchurch): The Cursed Blade, The Outlaw’s Hideout, The Temple of Fire
East Midlands
From last month’s update:
🔒 Chesterfield Escape Rooms: Deep Trouble
🔒 Escape Leicester: Kings Never Die, Mystery Fortress
East of England
🔒 The second company to open in Leighton Buzzard in quick succession, Mimic Escape opens its doors next week with a game called The Great Train Robbery.
🔒 Letchworth’s finest Agent Brains launched Y2K: Millennium Bugged, in which you need to save the world from the Y2K bug and defeat Dr NoGood.
🔒 Professor Delgado’s in Chelmsford also has a room update, replacing The Asylum with a different creepy theme, The Cabin.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Cryptic Escape (Norwich): Dragons Dungeon
🔒 Funky Snake Escape (Leighton Buzzard): Possession, The Vanishing Act
🔒 National Horse Racing Museum (Newmarket): Accumulated
🔒 Oliver Cromwell’s House (Ely): Operation Underlord
🔒 Suffolk Escape Room (Saxmundham): The Birthday Pay-up
Last call for:
❗️ Cryptx near Cambridge have announced that at present they expect to have to close doors at the end of June – but right now it’s not 100% definite. If you’ve been meaning to visit, seize the chance while you can, and it might just possibly make the difference in whether they can keep going.
Northwest England
🔒 Emergency Exit in Ashton seem to be no longer running their genre-beating avatar games, but the good news is that they have a new physical room, following the same story continuity as their others; this one is Ghost Writer.
🔒 New at Breakout Manchester is their take on the popular Stranger Things theme; their version is called Upsidedown.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Compendium Escape Rooms (Bury): Turd Raiders and The Lost Golden Plunger
🔒 Evadare (Edenfield): Curiouser and Curiouser, Deception
🔒 Street Hunt Manchester: Colombia’s Finest, Will Breaker
Isle of Man
From last month’s update:
🔒 Exit Strategy (Douglas): Cosmo’s Chocolate Factory
Yorkshire & the Humber
🔒 Escape Room Scarborough’s latest is Sea Side Escape; though rather than lying on the beach, you’ll be searching a tavern for a pardon to save a smuggler. The description notes that this room features a “helpful live actor throughout”.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Houdini’s Escape Room Experience Leeds: Escape From R.M.S. Titanic, Houdini’s Last Secret, Space Break
Northeast England
🔒 The Archives Job is a temporary and free escape game, built by theatre company November Club on behalf of the Northumberland Archives. It’ll be available on selected dates in Hexham, Alnwick and Berwick.
🔒 Escape Newcastle have a new room designed for exactly two players – in Stuck, you are trapped in an elevator, with 30 mins to escape.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Escape Newcastle (Newcastle upon Tyne): Escape To Victory
Scotland
🔒 Ayrshire Mobile Escape Rooms added another option to their lineup of rental games; this one is Behind Enemy Lines.
Also new, from last month’s update:
🔒 Escape Glasgow (Glasgow): Time Crystals
🔒 Nomad Escape (Glasgow): Deep Space Zero, The Conspiracy, The Jail
🔒 The Vault (Aberdeen): Cluedo: Murder of a Millionaire, Saw, The Resurrectionist
🔒 Crieff Hydro (Crieff): Escape Room: Diamond Heist
Northern Ireland
From last month’s update:
🔒 The Puzzle Tree (Bangor): Where Eagles Blair