Conquering clueQuest – Room Escape in London

Last updated: 23 June 2023

On a rainy summer’s evening, I joined a bunch of bloggers to undertake clueQuest, a room escape challenge in London.

Located just ten minutes from Kings Cross, clueQuest has three different escape room missions to put your inner spy to the test. Greeted by an oversized rustic wooden door, the reception area was bright and airy with wide glass windows facing Caledonian Road. We ditched our wet umbrellas and found a space to gather. Fortunately there were plenty of seats in numerous nooks to welcome and organise arriving teams.

What’s an Escape Room?

If you’ve been hiding under a rock you might have missed the craze that is escape rooms. These popular recreational activities are in fact an interactive adventure game. Willing participants are locked in a room and required to solve puzzles, riddles and use a combination of logic and reasoning to escape the room before time runs out.

The best games have a theme or are set in a fictional location. Places like prison cells, dungeons, and geisha houses are popular.

clueQuest

At clueQuest you don’t need a degree in coding or a working knowledge of nuclear physics but some lateral thinking and teamwork will go a long way.

Not wanting to spoil the surprise for anyone ready to take on the challenge, I will keep this brief. Our mission, under the guise of saving the world from the evil Professor BlackSheep, was charged with PLAN52, to find the double agent he used to cover his tracks.

The double agent had reset the security device, so we had just 60 minutes to discover the double agent’s identity and deactivate the device before the whole room detonated.

Armed with nothing but a walkie talkie to contact our handler if we needed additional clues, our team of five started off in one small room. Here we had to find and use clues to then unlock a door to access another room, and with it, a new set of challenges. All the while, a clock overhead ticked down.

Nothing like performing under pressure!

Lessons

My team comprised of five women, only one of which I’d met before. That’s the peril with these activities, to get the most out of it you have to work together. Each of us with their own strengths and weaknesses, some more experienced than others at room escape challenges.

Looking back, we should have sat down and figured out who was analytical, who was great at puzzles and visualisation and who could do the math. But we didn’t. We were too keen, too driven to win, ahem I mean save the world.

clueQuest ranks the three missions in level of difficulty. PLAN52 is ranked 3 out of 5 in difficulty, and one of the easiest missions available. While clueQuest recommends 3 to 5 players, I think four is ideal.

With a total of nine rooms, corporate or large groups can play at the same mission at the same time. clueQuest is expanding so more rooms will become available in the coming months, and with any luck, more missions.

Escape rooms are popular with workplaces for team bonding activities, but are also perfectly family friendly and groups of adult friends.

The Essentials

PLAN52 at clueQuest

Where: 169-171 Caledonian Road, London, N1 0SL

When: Weekdays: 11am – 9pm | Weekends: 9am –  9pm

Cost: from £24 pp (depending on team size)

Nearest Tube: King’s Cross

Ready to book? clueQuest

Disclaimer

My attendance at clueQuest was courtesy of Love PopUps London. We were not financially compensated for this post, all thoughts and opinions remain our own.