Buckingham Palace has launched an escape room

Another escape room has arrived in London, and it's at Buckingham Palace (yes, really).

We thought we’d never write the above words, but 2019 is full of surprises. Buckingham Palace is notoriously well protected, but this summer, royal fans will be able to get a much sought after peek inside the Queen’s home – in fact, they will actually be trapped inside and have to figure their way out.

The temporary escape room is themed around legendary artist Leonardo da Vinci and is part of the celebrations surrounding the launch of the palace’s latest exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing. The exhibition is taking place at The Queen’s Gallery until 13 October and features a display of more than 200 drawings by the artist, marking the 500^th anniversary of his death. The escape room is just one of a number of events that have launched alongside the exhibition, with other activities to try including dance performances, Renaissance pageants and yoga classes.

Punnily named ‘The Leonardo Artmergency’, the escape room is themed around the iconic artist’s work and without giving away too much of the storyline, involves an art curator who goes missing. The room will require teams of sleuths to use careful observation, creative thinking and detective work to beat the clock, but art novices will be glad to know that no prior art history knowledge is required.

Housing the escape room, The Queen’s Gallery has been transformed into four rooms of thematic puzzles and riddles, where guests will try their best to solve the mystery of the missing curator.