FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Absolutely. We sell them in different denominations available from our Booking page here: https://deadlockedrooms.com/reading/cart/
We have free on site car parking accessed from the rear of our building (off Anstey Road). A map and instructions on finding us will be in your confirmation email. Sometimes the parking can be a little tight, so feel free to park over both of our places marked 'Deadlocked' or closer to the building to ensure other cars can get out. Alternatively, there is free on street car parking on Zinzan street nearby, but that may just be for 2 hours, so is not suitable for if you're playing The Reading Witch (a 2 hour game). Alternatively, there is lots of paid parking nearby if you are in Reading for more than just an Escape Room.
Much like any theatrical show, your experience may include live actors and we generally run performances back to back through the day, so make sure you arrive in the area with plenty of time to spare to begin exactly at your scheduled start time. Please do let us know if you're likely to be late, and we'll do our best to give you the full experience, even if we have to be a little more generous with clues than we would normally be.
An Escape Room is a form of entertainment like no other. You and a group of friends/colleagues/family members or even just you and a date are ‘locked’ in a themed room and must use your wits, teamwork, and communication skills, to complete objectives and solve puzzles to escape within the time limit.
We’ll let you out, if that’s what you’re asking. We put a heavy emphasis on narrative at Deadlocked, so you’ll probably just experience a different ‘ending’, and come out with a complete experience and an explanation on how you could have succeeded.
We share bathrooms with the other company in the building, which you are welcome to use before or after your session, though we recommend going before arrival to ensure that your experience starts on time. Due to the immersive nature of the experiences, it could affect your experience if someone needs to use the bathroom during it, though this is not impossible if necessary.
We think that the fun of an escape room is in discovering the secrets for the first time, so we plan to change our rooms regularly to allow you to experience new ones if you want to come back. We can also recommend other local rooms that we have had great times in too such as Knockout Escape Rooms. That said, if you want to bring a first date to a room you’ve tried before, in order to appear super-intelligent, we’ll keep your secret!
The experience is designed to challenge a team of people, so we recommend teams of 4 players and a minimum age of 8 for The Time Machine (though anyone under 16 should be accompanied by an adult). The Reading Witch is an 18+ game, but get in touch if you have a younger teammate that really wants to join in.
Absolutely, as long as your team size doesn’t go above our recommended maximums (dependent on the game) then feel free to let us know beforehand and we can send a link to pay for the extra player directly. Our games are highly immersive and start immediately in character, so we don't have the facility to take payments on site.
We have special options for corporate or large groups, and can accommodate many more people if you’d like a special event. Get in touch through our ‘contact us’ page, and we’ll create a package tailored to your needs.
You don't need any outside knowledge to complete the rooms, though do check your confirmation email for potential backstory and instructions for arrival. Generally your experience will start exactly at your start time, so plan to arrive precisely at the time you have booked.
The Time Machine is a family friendly time travel adventure and not scary at all beyond brief moments of darkness. The Reading Witch is a physical and intense horror room that is designed to be scary. Puzzles never take second place to the scares though, and most of the time you’ll be left alone to solve what you need to in the more challenging moments. Characters may touch you unless you specifically request otherwise, but will never hurt or cause you harm. We can also scale back the horror if we see that your team is distressed. Get in touch if you'd like more information on this.
Our rooms are designed so that in the event of a fire, you will be able to simply walk out of the room. Magnetic locks will disengage and your host will escort you out of the building. You can also manually open locked doors with emergency exit buttons by each magnetically locked door if necessary.
Much like other theatrical experiences (such as booking seats at the theatre) we aren’t normally able to give refunds, as your slot is reserved privately for your team and we must, of course, pay our staff even if you do not show up. Given enough notice, so that we are able to resell your slot (more than 48 hours notice), we are happy to cancel your booking with a small cancellation fee, or reschedule or issue you a gift voucher for the full amount to play with us later.
We don’t allow food or drink in our rooms, for obvious reasons. We ask that you don’t take photos or videos within the room, since we don’t want our puzzles spoiled for future participants (and they might then beat you on our leaderboards), and you won’t ever need to use your phone/the internet for game related purposes. We do take a photo of each team afterwards for you to boast with.
For games with live actors, we have a strict no tolerance policy on threatening/violent/unacceptable behaviour towards our actors and may halt your experience in these cases.
We are located on Castle Street/Castle Hill (RG1 7RJ), right next door to the Castle Tap pub. There’s a big black door with the number 122 on the front with a doorbell marked ‘Deadlocked’ on the side. Simply ring the doorbell and someone will come to find you. We also have parking facilities around the back. Head to Antsey road, and follow the one way street to the right. On your left should be ‘Atlantis House Private Car Park’ which you can boldly drive into, find an empty bay and deposit your vehicle. N.B. spaces are quite tight, so feel free to straddle two of them if you have a large vehicle. You can ring the doorbell by the back door if you’re visiting from that direction.
Our games are down a flight of stairs, and the building has no lift, so the short answer is no. The Time Machine requires at least one member of the team to crawl through somewhere on their hands and knees, and The Reading Witch is a much more physical experience. We would strongly advise you to be in good health and free from heart conditions to play the The Reading Witch and requires crawling and sometimes moving at speed. N.B. our bathrooms are on the first floor, up a flight of stairs. Feel free to contact us if you’d like any more information about specific accessibility restrictions of our rooms. In some cases we may be able to accommodate you.
Haven’t you asked enough questions? If there’s something else, please feel free to email us at info@deadlockedrooms.com and we’ll get back to you ASAP.