THE creators of Salisbury Escape Rooms are looking for new owners to take over the "enjoyable" and "never the same" business following their retirement.

Escape room owners and former police detectives Gordon Howsego, Pete Waugh and Matthew Johnson launched the venture in 2015 as part of a five-year project.

Wanting to retire fully, the team is now looking for a new group to take over the site in Fisherton Street, hopefully keeping the experience running.

Within a few days of advertising the premises online in August, around six organisations came forward with enquiries, part-owner Pete said.

He added: "We all retired from police in 2015 and our plan was to run this for five years which is what we have done. Now two of us want to retire fully.

"If I lived closer to the town I would consider keeping it going myself. We really hope someone will take it over and keep the escape rooms going.

"It would be great if we could find more retired police officers to take it on - this background was part of its believability."

From time travel to laboratories, a mixture of themes and stories had been created by the trio over the last five years, challenging visitors with an assortment of clues, puzzles, characters and only one hour to escape.

Pete said the best part of working in Salisbury Escape Rooms was the creation process.

He said: "The building of a scenario takes around six to nine months, just to make sure it makes sense and everything flows, but it is good as it is very creative and the three of us have similar mindsets.

"All we wanted to do was run an enjoyable business that was never the same and never felt like work, that brought in a bit of money and was fun. It has been more successful than I thought it would be."

Salisbury Escape Rooms reopened on August 1 following an ease of lockdown measures, and will be operating under the current owners until March 2021.

To be Covid-secure after the reopening, the team has reduced the number of sessions to enable more time for cleaning, and personal protective equipment is provided.

Pete added: "When we first set up, we thought it was very slow and wasn't a good idea but it has picked up.

"People come here to enjoy themselves and always come out laughing and joking - we will really miss it."

For more information about the sale email salisburyescape@gmail.com