Houdini’s Escape Room Experience Acton: Hexmore School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

By | May 7, 2021

by Houdini's Escape Room Experience Acton (website)

Royale Leisure Park, Western Ave, London W3 0PA

West London

Up to 6 players

Languages: EN

60 minutes

Thank you for helping keep Escape the Review up to date!
Let us know what needs changing:





If you own or manage this company, you can also claim the listing and update it yourself

Promotional offer

50% off with code PRICECUT
You'd be crazy to miss out on our price cut offer!

Get a whopping 50% off when you come and play a Houdini's room on a Tuesday with a team of four or more.

Just enter code: PRICECUT when booking online.

Overall rating

Rated 3 out of 5

based on ratings from 8 users
combined with 1 pro review

Your review

Player reviews

Riot Games rated this:Rated between 30 and 30 out of 5
Team size: 4 Outcome: Successful escape!
story-drivenfamily friendlyvery easy
Alex Valnarov-Boulter rated this:Rated between 35 and 35 out of 5
Played: 24 Mar 2023 Team size: 2 Time taken: 42:07
clevergreat hostingfamily friendly
NerdsEsacpe rated this:Rated between 25 and 25 out of 5
Played: 4 Feb 2024 Team size: 4 Outcome: Successful escape!
family friendlymagicalbroken techvery easy
Okay room for beginners or families. Sadly some of the contraptions were already opened which took away from the atmosphere. Clues were given by our very softly spoken Game master and struggled to hear. It was an okay escape room. 
Stevie Davies expert rated this:Rated between 30 and 30 out of 5
Played: June 2021 Team size: 2 Time taken: 35mins
family friendlymagicalvery easy
Kayleigh2017 rated this:Rated between 50 and 50 out of 5
Played: 5 Nov 2023 Team size: 6 Time taken: 32 minutes Outcome: Successful escape!
story-drivenfamily friendlymagicalvery easy

This is a great escape room for families who are wanting to give escape rooms a go. 

It was easy for us as we've done several escape rooms, should have gotten  out quicker really.

The theme is great for an HP lovers. We really enjoyed playing this with the kids and would highly recommend Houdinis and any of their escape games.

Simon (The Overthinkers) expert rated this:Rated between 20 and 20 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
Spanishfleas experienced rated this:Rated between 25 and 25 out of 5
Team size: 5 Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifulstory-drivenfamily friendly

The start and look is great. The puzzles just doesn’t live up to it. I would recommend this game for kids but don’t think it would satisfy an escape room enthusiast. 

Richard Sinden experienced rated this:Rated between 25 and 25 out of 5
Played: 29 Jul 2021 Team size: 6 (2 kids - 6 & 9) Time taken: 60 minutes? Outcome: Successful escape!
quite easy😨creepy

Given the high quality of the other Houdini's games we've played, we were a bit disappointed by this one.

To start with we were kept waiting in reception for over an hour past our start time. The reason given was that the previous team were rubbish and were still going. Quite annoying given that there is bowling (which we had booked for afterwards and had to move back by an hour), laser quest and an arcade in the same building, which we could've gone and played had they told us it was going to be so long, rather than just keeping us sat there with no offer of any kind of compensation (not even water). However, I am not holding that against the game itself, other than the consideration that this isn't likely to be an isolated incident because this game appears to have no time limit - there is certainly no countdown available and we weren't made aware of a limit, hence the uncertainty over our time taken.

Generally the decor and atmosphere were very good. It definitely gave the impression of a wizards castle. The puzzles are a little on the easy side, but that is because it seems to be designed with kids in mind. However, if it is for kids, then why is so much of it so dark? In one room we had to get out the torches on our phones to be able to read a spell/recipe book, which kind of broke the immersion. Our 6 year old daughter was pretty frightened by some of the dark areas too. It felt a little unnecessary. Some authentic LED flickering candles or lanterns to carry with us wouldn't go amiss here.

My main complaint with this game though is that a lot of the puzzles felt like it was a case of the group saying the right words together or putting the right things in the right place and then someone in the control room watching you on a camera would push a button and the magic thing would happen. It's possible that this felt magical to the kids, but as an adult it was a bit rubbish. I would much rather that an escape room felt like you were locked in a room and if you solve the puzzles you could get yourself out, rather than you were running around doing tricks for the host who would reward you with the next part of the puzzle.

At the end, during the debrief, it was mentioned that we were playing a preview(? I can't remember the exact term) version of the room. However, I didn't see this mentioned during booking or beforehand we went in and as far as I and the price (which certainly wasn't cheap) was concerned, I was expecting a complete experience, so I am reviewing it as such.

The kids (6 & 9) seemed to enjoy it (other than being sometimes too scared to go into some areas without an adult), possibly because of the slightly gimmicky reward at the end. But, for the price and given the high quality of the other Houdini's games, I was disappointed. We played a great (not) Harry Potter themed game in Tenerife a couple years ago, and that managed to capture the magic and still maintain the feeling of a proper escape room much better than this one did. The kids still talk about that one today, and haven't mentioned this Houdini's one since we played a month ago.

Reviews by escape room review sites

See also