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Cryptic Escape in Norwich to expand into city centre car park
Cryptic Escape on Tombland, Norwich. Picture: David Hannant - Credit: Archant
We often find it difficult to navigate our way out of a multi-storey car park. And it is about to be even more difficult – at least at one Norwich location.
Cryptic Escape owner James Tuddenham (centre) with game masters Tom O'Sullivan, Troy Balmayer, Xymon Owain and Connor McGinn. Picture: David Hannant - Credit: Archant
Rose Lane multi-storey will soon also be home to a trio of puzzling escape rooms, after councillors gave the project the go ahead.
Cryptic Escape, a Norwich-based live action puzzle venue, is in the process of expanding, adding to its current location on Tombland.
As part of this expansion, owner James Tuddenham lodged an application with Norwich City Council to install three new game rooms in an empty unit connected to the Rose Lane multi-storey car park.
The application, which was submitted in March, set out plans for three rooms across the 154m/sq unit, along with a reception area.
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The vision is now going to become a reality, after councillors agreed to grant planning permission to Mr Tuddenham.
Mr Tuddenham said: 'We've been looking to expand for the last six months or so and have looked into a number of different locations for new rooms, however, this one was just ideal.
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'At the minute, we have three rooms in our current location, with a fourth on the way, but we have received such great feedback since we opened that we need to look at ways of expanding.'
Cryptic Escape's current location is inside Augustine Steward's House on Tombland and has been mystifying players since 2015, giving teams an hour to solve clues in order to escape from the game rooms.
With planning permission granted for the additional location, Mr Tuddenham is also looking to add a new element to the game.
He said: 'We haven't decided exactly what will be going into the Rose Lane site, however we have decided to make two of the three rooms identical games.
'We often host corporate team-building events where people like to split up into separate teams and compare results. However, it is difficult to make comparison when each room is so different. This way people will be able to make direct comparison.'
Mr Tuddenham said he hoped the new rooms would be up and running by Christmas.
Meanwhile, Labyrinth. a laser tag arena is also set to open on the site, in the unit directly below the escape rooms.
