A big cheque, a few questionable characters and £387 for a Cornwall cause.
The Cornwall Escape Room Challenge 2026 has raised £387 for Quiet Connections CIC, and the money has now been handed over.
Three businesses, one challenge
Between 17 August and 17 September 2026, three independent Cornish escape room businesses ran the Cornwall Escape Room Challenge together:
- Escape Rooms Cornwall, Penzance
- Locked In Cornwall, Camborne
- Escape Time St Ives, St Ives
Each business pledged £1 from every qualifying booking made during the campaign. That pound came out of the business and was never added to what customers paid, and each company has now paid Quiet Connections directly from its own takings.
Every qualifying booking also earned an entry into a prize draw for a private escape room experience for up to seven players.
By the time the campaign closed, those single pounds had added up to £387, from 387 bookings.
Not the usual line up for a cheque presentation
Being escape room people, we could not resist bringing a few familiar faces along to hand the money over.
Joining us were three rather questionable characters, one from each business: the St Ives Slayer from Escape Time St Ives, the Portreath witch from Locked In Cornwall’s The Smoke House Curse, and the dodgy raver from The Lamorna Brown Affair here in Penzance.
Not quite the crowd you would expect at a cheque presentation, but everyone behaved themselves long enough for the photograph.
Supporting Quiet Connections
Quiet Connections is a Cornwall based Community Interest Company. It creates opportunities for quiet, sensitive and shy people to make meaningful connections, experience belonging and flourish as themselves.
That felt like a natural fit for a campaign built on small groups of people working something out together in a room.
You can find out more about their work, and about their meet ups across Cornwall, at quietconnections.co.uk.
The prize draw
The draw took place on 21 September 2026. Every qualifying booking across the three businesses went into it, alongside the free entries, and the winner was picked at random using a verifiable method. The winner was Stephen, who booked his game with Escape Time St Ives, and his prize game is now booked in. Congratulations Stephen.
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who booked a game during the challenge. Whether you escaped with seconds to spare, needed a nudge or two from your games master, or never quite made it out, your booking is part of that £387.
Thank you also to Quiet Connections for the work they do across Cornwall.
Three Cornish escape room businesses took part this year. Here is hoping for a few more next time.
