clueQuest, London – Room 52
“I’ve found what looks like a HintHunt rip-off online, shall we try it?” is how I proposed this, our third escape room, to my friends. clueQuest have since relocated twice, are now one of the largest sites in London, if not the country, and widely regarded as one of the best. But when they launched it was with a website that seemed to use the same template as HintHunt’s and we sniggered at the numerous spelling mistakes. We even had to email the owners to get them to let us book a month in advance!
Back then they were located at Lee Valley Technopark in Tottenham Hale. If you’re thinking that sounds modern and high-tech, it was. When the business park was built in the 90s. And while old run-down, half empty business parks can be creepy during the day, they’re doubly so at 7pm on a cold December evening. With no external signage, we followed the instructions to what we hoped was the right door, and the park security guy / receptionist let us in. One of our team was running late, but the hosts were happy to accommodate us and let us start a bit later, and we were sat in a business park breakout area, with a noticeboard that genuinely had notices on there that were dated from the 90s. Over on another table, the clueQuest staff were working on something for their next room. This was clearly very different to the smooth, shiny, well signposted and located HintHunt.
clueQuest’s theme is all about being secret agents, or in this case, auditioning to be one by impressing “Mr Q” – it’s a theme that lends itself well to an escape room. The puzzles were a bit more challenging that we’d seen at HintHunt, though partly that was because we were fed clues far less often. Clues were given over a walkie-talkie, which between my bad hearing, the inherent poor quality of such devices, and the host’s accent, made understanding them a challenge in itself!
Result – we escaped with a few minutes spare
Date played: 17 December 2013
Team: Dean, Jess, Katherine, Sam
Website: https://cluequest.co.uk/
Summary: A great room, highly recommended.
4
Recommended
About the Author
Dean Love Dean is a professional writer who has worked for The Mail On Sunday, The Digital Fix, MicroMart and others.
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