Escape rooms plan for Preston's Guild Hall

Owners Rigby Group has applied to the city council for permission to convert part of the city centre arcade into an escape room.

According to documents submitted to the town hall, the new facility will be housed in a currently vacant retail unit.

It will create four full-time jobs with the application requesting for the official use of the unit to be changed from retail to leisure.

A spokesman told the Lancashire Post: “We are very excited to be bringing yet another amazing addition to Level with Enigma, our immersive and state-of-the-art escape rooms.

“There will be rooms within rooms with some being the most challenging in the UK for the hardened escapist.

“We are also hard at work on bringing axe throwing to the venue, so watch this space.”

The increasingly popular escape room activity sees teams tasked with solving puzzles and tasks in order to “unlock” themselves from confined spaces.

The Rigby Group has also applied for permission to extend Review Bar by incorporating the former site of the Leaf or Bean Coffee Shop.

Both applications are now being considered by council officers.

If approved, the addition of an escape room will be another part of the ongoing redevelopment of the Guild Hall since it was taken on by entrepreneur Simon Rigby in 2014.

Attractions to have recently opened include activity hub Level which has bowling, assault course, mini-golf and laser quest facilities.

Mr Rigby has previously said: “People visiting the Guild Hall now can make a day out of it.

"Rather than just seeing a show and then going home, they can arrive earlier, play some bowling, have a go at crazy golf, or whatever it is they want to do.”