Granny – the Escape Game

Because the experience begins the moment you arrive.

We don’t believe immersion should be something you switch on after a safety talk. Being gathered together and told “this is a game, here’s how it works” immediately pulls you out of the world we’ve spent years building.

Instead, Granny starts without announcement. There is no pre-show performance, no out-of-character explanation, and no moment where someone tells you what’s about to happen. You’re not entering a game — you’re stepping into a situation.

Everything you need to know is communicated naturally, in-world, as events unfold. This allows tension, curiosity, and atmosphere to build without interruption, and lets you discover the experience for yourselves rather than being instructed how to play it.

It’s a deliberate design choice.

We trust our players to adapt, explore, and work things out together — just as they would if this were real.

The puzzles don’t change.

What changes is how much is happening at once.

Granny is designed so the same challenges work just as well for four people as they do for eighteen. Nothing becomes locked behind a single person or a single task, and there’s never a point where everyone is expected to stand around waiting.

With more people in the house, more things are active at the same time. Different rooms draw attention simultaneously. Discoveries overlap. Conversations happen in parallel.

Some players will be hands-on, tackling physical challenges. Others will be exploring, spotting patterns, sharing discoveries, or keeping track of what’s happening elsewhere. Roles tend to emerge on their own as the experience unfolds. The house doesn’t tell you how to organise yourselves — and there’s no single “right” way through it.

Whether you arrive as a small group or a large one, Granny stays busy. The challenge isn’t finding something to do — it’s deciding what to focus on next.

Yes — but not a traditional one.

There is no button to press, no camera to look at, and no out-of-world voice telling you what to do next. All information is delivered in-world, as part of the environment itself.

Guidance may appear through phone calls, printed materials, background interruptions, service messages, or systems embedded in the house. Some of it is useful. Some of it is partial. Some of it only makes sense later. Occasionally, it raises more questions than it answers.

This is intentional.

Granny is designed as a continuous, self-contained world. Stepping outside it to request a “clue” would collapse the fiction — and the responsibility — that the experience is built around. Instead of being told what to do, teams are expected to observe, interpret, share information, and decide how to proceed for themselves.

Information exists in the house.
What you do with it is up to you.

Granny begins as soon as the fixed 15-minute check-in window closes.

All of our systems — including safety checks, consent recording, data protection, and in-world personalisation — assume that once this window ends, the experience is already underway and no additional people will enter.

Allowing someone in after that point would place them outside those systems, which we’re legally and operationally unable to do.

For this reason, even if you let us know you’re running late, we can’t admit anyone once the check-in window has closed.

We strongly recommend arriving early and reading the pre-show information we send you. Doing so ensures a smooth check-in and allows the experience to run exactly as intended.

ScreamWorks events are designed to be enjoyable even for non-horror fans. That having been said, Granny creates fear, paranoia and anxiety in its participants and has been given a fear factor of 3/5, so if you really don’t enjoy feeling afraid, then we recommend that you book the ‘No Live Actor’ version, which is identical in terms of puzzles but without an unhinged geriatric lunatic hunting you down. 

Granny is an escape room — but on an epic scale.

Instead of a linear sequence of puzzles across one or two rooms, Granny unfolds across an entire seven-room house. There is no prescribed order. You decide where to go, what to tackle first, and how to approach your mission. Those choices matter — and they’ll shape your experience.

The challenges you’ll face are far more varied than in a traditional escape room. We find padlocks boring! Expect physical puzzles, environmental games, hidden mechanisms, and systems that respond to your actions as the house comes alive around you.

This is a non-linear experience. Solving one puzzle doesn’t simply open the next door (in fact, all doors are unlocked throughout). Progress comes from exploration, experimentation, and piecing together the story. As you move through the house, you’ll uncover fragments of Granny’s past — and those discoveries can change what tools and information are available to you. Even the in-game clue system must be unlocked through your actions.

The scale of the house allows teams to spread out, split up, and work in parallel. Granny plays comfortably with as few as four players and up to eighteen, and many smaller teams complete the experience successfully. Success isn’t about numbers — it’s about communication, creativity, and how well you adapt under pressure.

You will not be touched intentionally by Granny and you must not touch Granny.

The age restriction is 13+, but under 16s must be accompanied by an adult and we administer this by enforcing a minimum adult-to-child ticket ratio of 1 : 6. 

Yes. Granny might be ancient, but she ain’t dead yet.

You can purchase a No Live Actor version of the experience if you want to enjoy the fun without the scares.

Yes. Your belongings will be stored in lockers in the bookshop. We strongly urge you to leave all your belongings here as we run back-to-back sessions and will not be able to spend more than a maximum of five minutes searching Granny’s house for lost property, whether that be your phone or car keys. In the event that you do lose something inside Granny house and our staff cannot find it within five minutes, then we will take your contact details and a detailed description of your belongings and contact you when/if we do find it. 

There is one toilet available during the experience — but it’s Granny’s bathroom, and you’ll need to find it first. Once the game begins, you can use it at any time… if you’re brave enough to enter. We strongly recommend using the bathroom before you arrive. Many guests stop at Mother Kelly’s nearby for a pre-show drink — they are happy for you to use their facilities and if you show them your Granny ticket, you’ll receive 10% off your bill.

The minimum cost to reserve a timeslot is 4 tickets. If you’re planning to visit Granny with a group larger than 4 and want others to pay separately, just purchase 4 tickets in one transaction to secure your slot. You’ll receive a confirmation email with all the instructions — including a booking link and password — so your friends can add themselves to your timeslot later.

The experience takes place on a single level and does not involve crawling. However, due to the layout of the building, it is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible.

Some areas have uneven surfaces and low or intermittent lighting, so there is a degree of physicality involved that may make the event unsuitable for those with limited mobility or balance concerns.

If you have accessibility needs, we require you to get in touch with us before booking, so we can discuss your specific requirements and advise accordingly.

If you’re registered as needing a carer (e.g. via DLA or equivalent), we’re happy to provide a free carer ticket. Just email us at  info@screamworks.co.uk

The experience may involve moments of physical intensity, startle effects, and an unpredictable environment — all of which make it unsafe during pregnancy.

Wear comfortable clothes and shoes with a good grip – trainers are perfect. Please avoid high heel shoes or any shoes which have a smooth leather bottom, like formal wear.

Granny lives behind Thorne’s Bookshop at 261 Paradise Row, E2 9LE. It is a two-minute walk from Bethnal Green underground station (Central Line) and a twelve-minute walk from Bethnal Green overground station. Click here to see a map.

Avpid using Google Maps or City Mapper as these third-party apps can be unreliable. 

We do not have a customer parking facility. However, there are plenty of parking bays on adjacent streets. 

After attending the event, you can log in using the email address you used at check-in and access your footage via the Attendee Dashboard. Please note: this system is currently in beta and is provided as a gesture of goodwill — we cannot guarantee availability, functionality, or technical support. Access is only granted if all members of your group check in and no one has opted-out of peer sharing.

Yes. Well, a ‘safe action’: Simply raise two hands in the air and stand still. Be patient, Granny’s house is enormous and it can take our staff a little while to spot you, but you are not being ignored. 

Please note that if any member of your group asks for the experience to stop, we disarm all systems, turn on the emergency lights and escort your whole group safely out of the building. We do not have the ability to restart the game systems after they have been deactivated, so we cannot allow the game to continue after a member of your group has asked for it to stop. And we do not offer refunds for games stopped prematurely at the request of customers. 

Most of our timeslots are private, which means that your group will not be joined by strangers. After making your purchase you will be given a password so only your friends and family can join your booking (you can add extra tickets up to two hours before the start time).

Occasionally we open up a small number of ‘public’ timeslots. These are generally cheaper because you may be joined by other members of the public. Because Granny is not an 18+ event, we enforce a minimum booking quantity of two players for all public timeslots, for safeguarding reasons. Unfortunately, this means that we cannot offer tickets to solo travellers.