Escape from prison as part of new Shrewsbury attraction
Salopians are set to escape from a prison - and it's all part of a new attraction.
Shrewsbury Prison is converting several cells into escape rooms. It's part of a £65,000 deal to install 20 escape rooms at Shrewsbury and Shepton Mallet prisons.
The prisons currently have escape rooms in situ, built into actual prison cells. “But these are a bit dated and don’t meet our exceptionally high standard of delivery, that we have become known for,” said Joel Campbell, owner of the company behind the prison attractions.
“We have been operating Shrewsbury Prison since 2015 and Shepton Mallet Prison since 2017, both have had escape rooms running for a while, but we felt now was the right time to invest into these immersive activities within the prisons and provide our visitors with a much higher standard of product. Escape rooms are one of our most popular products, where friends, families, private groups, hen & stag parties, corporate team building, or even educational groups can book and choose from different themed cells.”
Each escape room is built into a prison cell, so you get a fully immersive escape experience, along with your very own prison officer who will remind you of your crime before putting you into your cell and locking the door.
There are two themes to choose from ‘The Cell’ a family friendly, entry level escape room. ‘The Hole’ is designed to be a bit tougher for those that have tried escape rooms before, want an extra challenge or have older children. Whichever escape room you choose you will also get a self-guided tour of the prison included in your ticket price, which means you can make a full day out of your visit behind bars.
Joel added: “Since coming up with the idea for developing our prisons into heritage led attractions, we have seen hundreds of thousands of visitors come through our gates. We already hold the accolade of Shropshire’s #1 visitor attraction for Shrewsbury Prison. It was the right time to make this investment and the size of it represents the passion and belief we have for these attractions’ future, and we can’t wait for them to open at the beginning of July.”
The company signed a deal with Boundless Workshops to create the escape rooms. Boundless Workshop has created a number of award-winning escape rooms and is regarded as one of the UKs market leaders.
Shrewsbury Prison's new escape rooms will open on July 9.
