We started off as the plucky little escape room that could back in 2013, with four brothers, one room and a mouse in charge of it all named Mr Q. We were the second escape room to ever open in the UK!
Then came 2014, and the opening of our second room, Operation BlackSheep. Special agents were tasked with the mission of stopping a mind-controlling satellite, a dangerous task! But our initial location wasn’t enough for clueQuest anymore, so we packed up shop and moved to Liverpool Street, our second home!
But even Liverpool Street soon seemed too small, and so we once again moved in 2015, this time to King’s Cross, where we still are today (albeit with more missions, a conference room and garden, and with many more opportunities for team-building).
Once we were settled in, what was next for clueQuest? Another room, of course! In 2016, we revealed Revenge of the Sheep, a step up in difficulty for our agents. It was a chance for us to stretch our creative skills even further, and Revenge of the Sheep was immediately used for matters of the heart - read all about Chris and Frances’ romantic engagement here!
2017 was all about travel, and we were invited to many prestigious events this year. Our favourite was definitely Comic-Con, a fan event in London where we showed off some of our fiendish puzzles and shared a room with Benedict Cumberbatch! (We wonder if his time playing a spy in The Courier would make him a perfect clueQuest agent? Quick, get his number!).
2018 was the year of our next room, cQ:Origenes, a room which shot up in the rankings of most challenging escape rooms in London! Luckily for us, our agents were more than up to the task, and still are today.
You might be thinking, ‘what else could there possibly be?’, but in 2019, we started running our clueQuest Assessment Programme, where we gave employers the opportunity to measure, evaluate and assess their employees’ performance inside our rooms. This invaluable service was immediately taken advantage of, much to our delight!
Of course, like many businesses, in 2020 we had to close our doors. We didn’t let that stop us, though! We created the Print+Cut+Escape game, an innovative way to have fun in lockdown, featuring all of clueQuest’s beloved characters. Starting off with our first game, Stolen IQ, clueQuest now has ten Print+Cut+Escape games for you to play. Whether you want to save Christmas from the Professor or help MM7 understand love, we’ve got it all!
But of course, clueQuest didn’t stay shut for long, and in 2021 we had our grand reopening. Our four rooms were all available to be played once again (and thoroughly sanitised!), and we threw ourselves into making clueQuest as brilliant an escape experience as it had been previously.
By this point, it had been several years since our first room, PLAN52, had opened, and we decided that 2022 was the time to spruce it up. We added an electronic locking system, new furniture, and a lick of paint! It was the same room we had lovingly created back in 2013, but with a shiny new interior.
And here we are in 2023, ten years on from our humble beginnings. Over the years, we’ve hosted thousands of games, and we’re not stopping any time soon! We’ve just opened our newest escape experience, an outdoor game ‘Glitch Hunters’, that takes you on an epic journey throughout London! You can read an interview with its creators here, and book your own outdoor adventure here.
CEO Gabor Papp said: ‘clueQuest’s mission statement has always been to create happy memories for people. If companies were measured by how much laughter and happiness they contain, then clueQuest would be the most valuable place in London. We’re so proud of that as a business, and as a family’.
To learn more about how we’re celebrating our ten year anniversary (including monthly opportunities to win £1000!) click here. To book an escape game and start your journey with clueQuest, click here.