About Us – Who is The Panic Room?
About Us – The Panic Room Gravesend
The Panic Room started as a husband-and-wife dream in 2015 in Gravesend, UK, and has now boomed into a vast entertainment hub.
Starting from very humble beginnings, we were put in an awful position when the company we both worked for went out of business while we were on our honeymoon. It was during this honeymoon that we had to reevaluate what we wanted to do and how we wanted to start off our new life together, and this is when it all changed forever. We were in Atlanta, Georgia, and we kept seeing signs of an escape room location. Being avid gamers, we couldn’t resist and wanted to give it a go. We played our first room at Paranoia Quest in their Zombie virus room and just instantly fell in love with the concept. We ended up wanting to play another one straight away.
Over the next couple of weeks, we ended up playing over a dozen escape rooms in Atlanta and Orlando and for sure had the bug. Now, coming back to the UK, with our previous jobs in jeopardy, we decided to pivot and do this ourselves. Now, we didn’t have the big budget that many others had, but we did have dedication, teamwork and a big creative spark, which was enough to bring The Panic Room Gravesend to life.
Early Days
We finally opened our pop-up Escape Room at the Gravesend Old Town Hall in January 2016, and it has been an exciting ride since then. We brought something new and exciting to the town, and there was such a buzz!
Within just a few months, we ended up opening our first permanent location, going from 1 room to 3 rooms in no time!
Six months later, we opened our second location, which we still have today, with three more rooms.
The Big Expansion
By Summer 2017, we had just opened our third building, which is now our main building in the St Georges Centre. The first experience to open was the ridiculous grandeur of Dino Land, a 75-minute 2,000 sqft Adventure Escape Room like no other. From there, we built even more escape rooms, taking our total up to 12!
Surviving The Pandemic
When the pandemic struck in 2020, our company was on the back foot. We had just invested heavily in new experiences and then been completely locked down. We were faced with potential redundancies and having to close for good, we would not back down.
Faced with the challenge, we started creating Online Escape Rooms where people could play from the comfort and safety of their own homes.
We turned a potential bust into a boom that saw hundreds of thousands of players from across the globe play the 30 games we had developed during lockdown. You can still play them today! Click here to have a look.
We Opened A Game’s Store!
Coming out of the pandemic, we diversified even more by opening our own gift and games retail store. Packed to the brim with a range of exciting products from all over the globe, we also started building smaller Escape Rooms called “Escape Games.”
These were single-room experiences at a much lower price point, making it more affordable for people to try out our Escape Room experiences.
Ultimate Entertainment Centre
Looking to diversify The Panic Room’s offerings, we opened yet another new location! The Entertainment Centre was totally dedicated, however, to all things Entertainment, of course!
We built an immersive arena for Laser Tag, a retro arcade, and even installed some fantastic mini golf options, VR, and finally, our bar/venue, where we now have incredible food and drink options, live events, and Private Karaoke rooms to enjoy.
What’s Next For The Panic Room?
It’s been an incredible journey over the last 10 years, filled with ups and downs, challenges and some incredible victories.
What has been one of the best things about The Panic Room is getting to go on this journey together as husband and wife, we work together every day and although most find that a curse, it’s been such a blessing and it’s great to have such an incredible partner by my side.
What’s next for The Panic Room? Time will tell!
We have further expansion plans within our Entertainment Centre where we still have room to fill with even more activities, we’ll be bringing even more new Escape Room experiences soon too at our St George’s Centre location so keep your eyes peeled as we keep on creating something that we hope you all and Gravesend can be proud of.
Thanks for reading!
Alex & Monique Souter
The Panic Room Gravesend