CLUE WE ARE!
Enigma Escape Cornwall
Hi everyone, Oli and Megan @ Enigma here! (That's us in the first photo below!)
We are a small husband and wife team with a passion for puzzles and a focus on high quality, hand built, super immersive experiences. Our unique venue in historic Lemon Street is hidden below street level in a quirky basement of an 18th century town house. All of our experiences are vintage themed, each with their own unique stories, puzzles and tasks to complete!
Oli has a history of working for Eureka Escape (who previously owned the business) as a games leader for over 7 years. As his role grew into more of the development, puzzle design and building work, his creativity started to flow and that was when he knew he'd "found his thing!"
So when the opportunity to buy the Truro branch of the business came about in September 2023, it was a no brainer! We put our heads together to come up with what we wanted our USP to be, based on our pet hates and wow moments as escape room players. We decided QUALITY was the way to go! We felt most disappointment when an experience is poorly maintained, minimally decorated or the puzzles don't flow logically. You can tell when a room has been built from "flat pack" or when the focus is more on a quick flip than a passion project. The little details like adding a creepy sound effect, a tactile prop or an authentic poster can genuinely elevate to good experience to a great one! And that's what we set out to achieve.
Our little business would not be anything without our fantastic team of Games Leaders. Imy (last photo below on the left) is our Site Lead and has been with us from the very beginning, taking the management reins when we get an occasional day off! We really couldn't do this without her commitment and experience. From Left to right in the photo below we also have Harry, Emily and Loey. All have been a wonderful addition to the team and impressed our customers with their excellent Games Leader skills. Loey is our social media queen and has helped to get us a following from the younger generation on TikTok.
In April 2024 we started work on what was to become our first true labour of love - FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN! The first full experience we've built from scratch, it slowly grew into the immersive Lovecraftian horror story we have today, a truly mammoth build of 13 months! FEAR opened in May 2025 and has rapidly become the most decorated escape room in the whole of the UK. We have pushed the boundaries with the game mechanics and story telling element of this experience and managed to create something replayable, which is very unique in the escape room world. In 2025 we were delighted to be the only escape room in Cornwall to be nominated for an international TERPECA Award. In 2026 things really ramped up, and by September FEAR had won a prestigious Golden Lock Award and became the first experience to take the number 1 spot in the UK Escape Room Awards. Being crowned THE BEST IN THE UK is something only dreams are make of and will always be one of our biggest life achievements! We promise you, you won't find anything else quite like it!
A special mention also needs to be given to Dave Sampson (centre photo below)! Dave is our third musketeer when it comes to the design and build process. He's an incredibly talented carpenter with a degree in interior design. Although we can wield a power tool or a paint brush, Dave is the one that adds the wow factor to our set pieces! His creativity and attention to detail are second to none and the addition of his skill sets really does give us the full package. His goal is to get into immersive set design full time. So to find out more about what he does and see if if could help with your project, follow this link to his Instagram page.
As FEAR was such a success and business has continued to grow, the decision was made for Megan to leave her NHS job and join the business full time as of October 2025. This has allowed us to keep up with the maintenance and high level of quality we strive for, as well as taking on more exciting projects. In 2025 we were able to create our own unique, hand built Christmas experience TURKEY DINNER as well as develop 4 (again hand made) puzzle boxes that we take as a free activity to local events. You can see us at no less than 8 events in 2026!
The future is set to be a busy one! We have just finished off a collaborative project with Geevor Tin Mine, who have had 2 mining themed educational puzzle boxes commissioned, whilst also starting our next big build project! Watch this space for the CLUEDO Mansion... We also have plans to start hiring out our puzzle boxes for corporate events and creating a new hand built Christmas experience for 2026!
We look forward to meeting you soon for your next puzzling adventure!
Megan and Oli :)
SUSTAINABILITY
Here at Enigma we pride ourselves on the extra steps we take towards making our business as sustainable as possible. The list below outlines some of the steps to lessen our environmental impact!
- As a vintage themed site, we are able to use pre-loved items to bring our experiences to life. We source many of our items of furniture, props and décor from local auctions, charity shops and resale websites. Whilst keeping the quality extremely high, this also allows us to use authentic items true to the time periods of our various immersive experiences.
- This extends to our use of building materials, many of which are reclaimed. For example in FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN you will find floorboards reclaimed from a house renovation, doors from a local salvage yard and cabinets/shelves repurposed from a wardrobe!
- These principles even extend into our reception and Enigma staff areas. All of the furniture and props you see in reception, as well as many of the items used by the Games Leaders, are also pre-loved!
- As much as possible these pre-loved items are then recycled once more at the end of their use. They will either be sold or donated to local charities or recycling centres. Our experiences have an average life span of 4 years and are extremely well maintained to ensure as low a turnover of props and furniture as possible.
- In house we ensure to recycle glass, card, paper, plastic and drinks cans. We also take extra steps to recycle the more difficult to dispose of items such as batteries and soft plastics.
- The energy required to run our experiences is kept as low as possible. We use LED lighting and 12v appliances predominantly.
- Our use of consumable items is very low. Gameplay only requires occasional replenishment of stationary and the teams souvenir is a recyclable scorecard. We have taken the decision to not give away any single use plastic items as part of our experiences.
- We have invested in two large pots of bee friendly plants at the entrance of our building to encourage nature to thrive in our city centre location.