An espionage themed immersive museum and social gaming experience that first opened in New York is coming to London later this month.
Spyscape London will launch at the end of May at a 25,000 sq ft site on Wellington Street in Covent Garden with tickets starting from £23.
It will be the first overseas location of a concept that began on Eighth Avenue, Manhattan, in 2018 and has attracted one million visitors since then. One early feature was a James Bond inspired exhibit featuring the actual Aston Martin DB5 driven by Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye.
The New York venue is a 60,000 sq ft interactive museum created by London-based private investment group Archimedia and designed by the British-Ghanian architect Sir David Adjaye best known for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC.
Spyscape HQ now has seven main gallery zones including Encryption, which focuses on the cryptanalysts who cracked the German Enigma Machine in the Second World War, and Special Ops, which highlights the work of wartime SOE Officer Virginia Hall.
Visitors have the choice of participating in two tickets experiences: Spyscape, a narrative-led interactive museum based upon real tradecraft and interactive challenges developed by a former head of training at MI6, and Spygames, a social gaming experience, where teams of two or more players tackle high-tech challenges created with expertise from the CIA and Special Ops.
The website describes the London experience as offering the chance to “explore hidden worlds, break codes, run surveillance, dodge lasers and more in a thrilling 90 minute brain-teasing experience.”
At the end of their visit to the London site each visitor will receive a detailed 40 page profile of their own personality, skills and attributes – developed by a former head of training at British Intelligence and a leading psychology professor at Imperial College London.
Both venues will be open 10am to 8pm Sunday to Thursday and up to 10pm on Friday and Saturday.
John Hunt, founder and chief executive at Spyscape, said: “Our mission at Spyscape is to inspire ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things, through personalised content and immersive experiences.
“Having welcomed more than one million visitors to our Manhattan location, we believe Covent Garden’s vibrant cultural scene and central location make it the ideal setting to expand our efforts and engage an even broader international audience.”
William Oliver, retail leasing director at landlord Shaftesbury Capital said: "Covent Garden continues to set the standard for a truly multifaceted experience, and the addition of SPYSCAPE’s unique immersive experience will complement our high-calibre, varied line-up of retail, leisure and F&B brands.”
James, Spyscape’s anonymous spokesperson said:“Your mission, should you choose to accept it. Is to discover what kind of spy you really are.
“You don’t need to scale the Burj Khalifa or hang off a helicopter to be a spy. Spying has always been about mindset. Or, as a certain agent once said, ‘Know your enemy — and know yourself. “
