Escape Room Centre

By Margaret Brecknell

John Cutler was hooked from the moment he visited his first escape room and since then has played escape games all over the world, before eventually deciding to open his own escape room business in Blackpool some seven years ago.

John’s main business, Premier

Cabs, is an award-winning electric taxi company, but he was keen to become involved in running his own escape rooms because, he says, “it is unlike any other business”. “People come out and they’re elated and buzzing”, he explains, adding that, “they talk about the experience for weeks afterwards”.

An escape game is usually played by a team of between two and six players, who must work together to uncover clues, solve puzzles and accomplish tasks, usually with the aim of escaping a room before time is up. Games are set in a variety of fictional locations including everything from dungeons and attics to Egyptian pyramids. The concept of escape rooms first became popular in the Far East and North America in the early years of the 21st century, before taking off in Europe at the start of the 2010s.

The Hungarian city of Budapest is Europe’s undisputed capital of escape games, with over 80 escape room sites. John explains that he spoke to “the very best of the best” in Budapest and invited them to come over from Hungary to build the Escape Room Centre’s first four games. “That gave us a grounding on what makes a fantastic game”, John says, and since then he has created further games, always looking to “exceed the basic in the business”.

John stresses that you don’t need to escape to have a great time, nor do you have to be academically bright to succeed. “It’s about thinking outside the box”, John explains. The best players work well together through communication and teamwork. He tells me that when families do an escape room together, it’s often the children who are the first to spot a clue and success hinges on whether their parents are prepared to listen. The centre’s main gamemasters, Jacob and Conor, are always on hand to offer some friendly guidance during the game, should it be required.

Escape rooms are also popular with businesses as a team building exercise. Not only does it offer colleagues a chance to collaborate and bond away from their usual working environment, but it also allows business managers to see how their employees interact with each other and who works best in a team.

The Escape Room Centre is situated at 44-46 Church Street, not far from Blackpool’s North Pier. There are currently seven different rooms, with another under construction, offering

various degrees of difficulty. Most games are one hour in duration, although the most recent addition, the Grand School of Sorcery, lasts 90 minutes. There is something for everyone, with games suitable for all age groups from 8 to 88. If a game has a particular physical requirement, visitors will be informed of this at the time of booking.

For those who are new to escape games, the centre offers a 30-minute challenge named the Eye of Fire. Players are challenged to search for the Eye of Fire, a huge orange sapphire. This legendary jewel was said to have been unearthed during an archaeological dig deep in the Peruvian jungle more than half a century ago, but has never been seen since.

As regards the one-hour games, three are graded as suitable for beginners and more experienced players alike and may be played between teams of two and six people.

The Egyptian is one of the Centre’s most popular games. As with all the escape rooms here, the room has been beautifully created with plenty of attention to detail. The aim is to allow players to become totally immersed in the game. With the images of Egyptian gods and hieroglyphs which cover the walls and replicas of the kind of artefacts you would expect to find in a pyramid, it really does feel like you are entering an Ancient Egyptian tomb.

Players of this game are challenged to take on the Pyramid of Mysteries. Several millennia ago, the Egyptian Pharaoh, Horus, devoted years to building the Pyramid of Mysteries. Upon its completion, he lay down a challenge that whoever could enter the pyramid and escape within one hour would inherit the whole of Egypt. Failure would result in being entombed in the pyramid forever. Players are challenged to take on the Pyramid of Mysteries and succeed where everyone else has failed.

In Secret of the Tomb, players enter a mysterious dimly lit room, where they are given one hour to find an urn of ashes, put it in its rightful resting place and escape before the psychopath, whose room it is, returns. Please note that this game contains strobe lighting.

Players of The Bomb are members of an elite “Bomb Disposal Unit”, who are given one hour to find a bomb, deactivate it and escape the room.

Two of the one-hour games on offer at the Escape Room Centre are

graded as being suitable for more experienced players, although this would not necessarily rule out anyone else who is prepared to take on the challenge. John Cutler remarks that, “It can be hard to grade difficulty levels, as what seems obvious to one individual, someone else may find difficult”. The games are suitable for all but if you have any questions simply call or email.

Grimoire in the Attic is designed for between three and seven players and is not recommended for children under 14 years of age, nor for anyone with a pacemaker. An ancient book of spells, The Grimoire, has been stolen by thieves, who plan to unleash the evil within it. Players have one hour to find the Grimoire in a forgotten attic of an abandoned mansion before the evil spirits are unleashed on an unsuspecting world.

As with the other games here, the room has been imaginatively decorated with a view to creating an appropriately eerie and unsettling atmosphere. The room is dimly lit with furniture and other props covered in dust sheets. It is easy to imagine that you really are in an abandoned attic somewhere, particularly as this escape room is located in the actual attic at the top of the building.

The Escape Room Centre describes Get Me Out as “our ultimate challenge” and is designed for teams of between two and six players. A disqualified doctor is terrorising the local area, combing the streets for victims on whom he can conduct tests to discover the outer limits of pain. Handcuffed to the wall, players need to escape the room within an hour before the evil Doctor Theodore Kaminsky returns to begin his diabolical experiments.

The Centre’s most recent game, the Grand School of Sorcery, promises players “90 minutes of magical fun and

challenges for witches and wizards of all ages”. Guided by the school’s headmaster, Elijah Maelstrom, teams of between two and six players have an hour and a half to pass through the classrooms, solving mysteries, riddles and puzzles on a quest to earn the Scrolls of Wizardry.

A lot of planning and imagination goes into the development of the games and each one usually takes between six and twelve months to create. Intriguingly, John Cutler reveals that he is currently in the process of building a new game, which is “cloaked in mystery” at present. He hopes that the game will be ready to open by early next year.

John is constantly looking to make improvements and it is not just the escape rooms which are updated and refurbished. The entrance to the Escape Room Centre has recently undergone a major refit.

One of the biggest escape room venues in the country, Blackpool’s Escape Room Centre is as popular with locals as with visitors to the resort. Escape room fans come from all over the country to visit the attraction. This is hardly surprising, as it offers a wide range of original escape rooms, all of which have been beautifully designed to create a special atmosphere in keeping with the theme of each individual game.

Owner, John Cutler’s, passion for escape games is plain to see in the business he has created. It is exciting to imagine where this passion and enthusiasm may take it in the future.

M Escape Room Centre, 44-46 Church Street,

Blackpool FY1 1HP

E info@escaperoomcentre.com

Book an escape game online at: www.escaperoomcentre.com or N 0748 2738553

T @TheEscapeCentre F @EscapeRoomCentre

M Escape Room Centre, 44-46 Church Street, Blackpool, FY1 1HP N 07482 738553 | E info@escaperoomcentre.com T @TheEscapeCentre | F @EscapeRoomCentre www.escaperoomcentre.com