Diefenbunker joins ‘escape room’ craze
Historic site in Ottawa proudly earns the title of ‘world’s largest escape room’ this week
During the Cold War, only a fortunate few would have been allowed inside the Diefenbunker in the event of a nuclear war. Today, only a fortunate few will get out.
Starting this week, the historic site and national museum will be used as the “world’s largest escape room.”
Escape room games — in which players are locked in a room and have to solve clues to find their way out — sprang up in Asia about eight years ago and have since become a recreational phenomenon across North America, with dozens in Toronto alone. Escape Manor, which hosts several escape rooms in Ottawa, was recently approached by the Diefenbunker Museum to develop a historically appropriate version for the site. Most escape rooms are on a much smaller scale than what’s planned for the Diefenbunker.
Starting this week, from Thursdays to Sundays when the museum closes at 4 p.m., a whole new kind of visitor will explore the 100,000-square-foot, threestorey underground bunker.
Twelve visitors at a time will be plunged into an hour-long, espionage-themed scenario, tasked with stopping an imminent nuclear detonation.
Even before the attraction opens, it’s already booked up through September, having sold out in a single week.
“It’s an experience in itself to visit the Diefenbunker,” said Escape Manor spokesman Steve Wilson, noting the entrance to the museum is down a massive subterranean “blast tunnel.”
“You’re three storeys underground and there’s no Internet, so there’s no connection to the outside world. It’s very, very immersive.”
The bunker, built at the height of the Cold War during the administration of late prime minister John Diefenbaker, was meant to house more than 500 government officials in the event of a nuclear attack.
“It’s like a labyrinth in itself. You feel immediately humbled and transformed back into a lost era. It takes you right back to the Cold War era. There’s an office for the prime minister, and you can walk in and see the bed where he would have slept; you can see all the old phones and AV equipment,” Wilson said.
“There’s computer rooms that are just mind-boggling, knowing the BlackBerry in your pocket has more power than most of these things that are the size of garbage trucks. You really feel like you’re stepping back in time.”
Clues are intermingled with the museum’s existing artifacts and participants — who pay $30 each — have 60 minutes to achieve three tasks that will allow them to solve the puzzle.
Megan Lafrenière, marketing manager for the museum, said bringing in Escape Manor was a novel way to “attract audiences who don’t typically visit museums; you’re bringing them in a whole other way.”
“There are younger people who may not have a connection to the Cold War and may not have been born then, so it’s attracting an altogether different audience, which is exciting for us.”
The bunker, built at the height of the Cold War, was meant to house more than 500 government officials in the event of a nuclear attack
While the Diefenbunker is a national historic site and museum, “we’re a notfor-profit. This is part of our revenuegenerating and helps us to maintain a very, very old facility,” Lafrenière added.
Escape Manor already operates nine other “rooms” in two other buildings — with scenarios including an asylum, a jail and a laboratory — one in downtown Ottawa and one in the Hintonburg neighbourhood.
While Wilson and his business partners expected a demographic of clients from 20 to 40, they’ve been surprised that visitors have ranged in age from 12 to 86. There’s also a large contingent of companies seeking “team-building” exercises.