Prisons agree UKs largest escape room contract

Escape Rooms to be installed at Shrewsbury Prison & Shepton Mallet Prison worth £65K

Yes, you did read that correctly, 2 prisons in the UK have just agreed a £65,000.00 deal to install 20 brand new, state-of-the-art escape rooms into prison cells. However, these are no ordinary prisons. Both Shepton Mallet Prison in Somerset and Shrewsbury Prison in Shropshire were closed and decommissioned in 2013. Since then, they have been given a new lease of life as heritage led tourist attractions.

uploaded picture

Operating since 2015, both prisons already offer a wide range of heritage tours, activities, and events, including Guided Tours, Ghost Tours, Prison Break events and you can even stay overnight in your very own cell. 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.”

uploaded picture

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 2 themes to choose from ‘The Cell’ a family friendly, entry level escape room, which is perfect for beginners and first-time escapees. ‘The Hole’ 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 Campbell, owner of the company behind the prison attractions said “Since coming up with the idea for developing our 2 prisons into heritage led attractions, we have seen hundreds of thousands of visitors come through our gates. We are on a journey to create two World Class Tourist Destinations; we already hold the accolade of Shropshire’s #1 visitor attraction for Shrewsbury Prison and Somersets #1 visitor attraction for Shepton Mallet Prison. Our customer reviews are fantastic rarely dropping below 5 stars. 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.

Alastair Watson, CEO of boundless workshops said ‘The team behind Shrewsbury Prison and Shepton Mallet Prison have a clear vision of the immersive journey they want to take customers on. The new escape rooms we are developing will bring that vision to life in these unique venues. It’s fantastic to be involved in this project and we are looking forward to seeing what the team come up with next.

The new escape rooms will open at Shepton Mallet Prison on 2nd July and Shrewsbury Prison on 9th July. Tickets are available to purchase now for both the current and new escape rooms at both prisons.

• To find out more about the escape rooms or book tickets please visit,

o Shepton Mallet Prison – https://www.sheptonmalletprison.com/