Discover Hidden London With Moriarty’s Game

I love nothing more than rediscovering London and finding new hidden places. As busy Londoners, we spent our weekdays rushing to and from work, and our weekends catching up with friends and completing lists of never-ending chores. Often we forget to enjoy our city and only when we stop and play a tour guide to an excited visitor, we learn to appreciate the beauty again and remember why we fell in love with it in the first place.

When friends and family come to visit from out of town or abroad, I jump at the opportunity to take them around town and show them some of London’s best and finest sights.

When I heard that HiddenCity has extended their popular Moriarty’s Game due to popular demand, needles to say I got very excited. I dug out my flat cap, gathered my fellow partners in crime and off we went in an attempt to solve ‘The Final Problem’.

We met at the Royal Institute of British Architects – the starting point of the trail. Here we received our first clue and I must admit it took us a little while to get our heads around it. Once we had our first answer, we sent it back via a text and received the next cryptic clue. This was the pattern of the game.

We continued in this manner and spent the next few hours wondering around London. On the trail, we discovered little places I never knew even existed. The questions and answers led us to various locations (all walking distance) around some of London’s secret and not so secret places. The questions and puzzles were very clever and mysterious, and some took longer to solve than others.

Having four of us on the team really helped – we all had different qualities and skills to add. There were four sections to complete and after each one there was an opportunity for a break. I discovered that all four of us were rather competitive and decided to continue pretty much straight away with the next set of clues.

The Moriarty’s Game is super fun for all friends and family to enjoy, a great way to test your mystery solving skills and most of all, a fabulous way to discover and rediscover London – all whilst getting hours of exercise in without even noticing.

All roads lead to Rome – in this case to Moriarty’s safe house. We all felt a great sense of achievement once we reached our destination and a drink was in order.

A tip to share – register at least two mobile phones when you sign up in case one runs out of battery, wear comfortable shoes and like a true Londoner – don’t forget your umbrella. Apart from that, have fun!

• The game takes between two to four hours to complete and costs £60 for a group of up to four people. It runs until 1 March 2017. For bookings and more information, visit www.inthehiddencity.com