Explore a capital transformed by spring

We’ve teamed up with Time Out London to give you a mystery Easter experience, with cryptic clues sent to your phone by text. Navigate the trail successfully and you’ll see spring exhibitions, stroll through blossoming gardens and behold city views. Stop by pubs and cafes en route.

The trail starts in the cafe of the Wellcome Collection, a stone’s throw from Euston station. Text ‘start’ to get your first clue. Reply with the correct answer, get the next clue. Each clue leads you to a new destination.  

Everyone can win: successful teams get a Chocolate Easter Egg (one per team) from Divine Chocolate. The fastest team wins a breakfast for four at the Hawksmoor Guildhall. Fancy taking your time but still want to win? Not a problem, there are bonus Easter challenges en route for the chance to win mystery prizes.

To be in for a chance of winning a mystery prize tweet a creative spring picture of your team mentioning your team name, @TimeOutLondon and @intheHiddenCity. Not sent a Tweet before? Here’s how to tweet.

Clues are designed for adults. The trail includes licensed premises. Children are welcome in all locations. Expect to walk 3 miles.

Create your team

Want to win? Obey the rules.

1. The team captain is the competition entrant. If you enter more than once, your first attempt is your competition entry. You must not seek help from anyone who has completed the trail. Here’s how to play HiddenCity.

2. The prizes are:

- A small chocolate egg from Divine Chocolates for every team, which you get at the end of the trail.
- The fastest team, including any time penalties, wins a £150 voucher for breakfast at the Hawksmoor Guildhall, redeemable by 31 May 2013. Hawksmoor Guildhall is open Monday to Friday.
- A mystery prize for the most creative team photo, as judged by HiddenCity.
- Mystery prizes. Challenges are set en route.

3. Visit every location.

4. HiddenCity and Time Out may publish entrants’ names, team names, results, photos and videos for marketing purposes. We won’t publish your email or mobile phone number.

5. Going to win? Great. If you win we’ll let you know within 21 days of the competition closing, and request details so we can deliver the prize to you. Reply within 14 days and we’ll send the prize within 14 days.

Doing Something have selected HiddenCity as of one of 100 Must Do Dates date venues in London 2013. 

“Sign-up for this mystery trail that sends you off on a quest around some of the city’s hidden corners via a series of clues sent to your phone by text. Embrace your inner Sherlock and Dr Watson fantasies as together you uncover parts of London you never knew existed..”, say Doing Something.

Doing Something is a dating site that’s a bit different to the others. Instead of browsing people by their profile, you see a list of date ideas presented alongside a photo of your potential date.

For more date ideas, take a look at the Doing Something site.

Discover the capital’s romantic side with a three-hour cryptic experience, where you and your partner solve clues sent to your phone by text.

What’s happening? You’re taking part in a HiddenCity experience. It’s a game where you solve a trail of clues sent to you by text message. Sign up online, bring your mobile phone and a map, and get ready to rediscover your city.

In the Cupid’s Conundrums trail you’ll walk through parks enlivened by love and steal away through tucked-away courtyards. It’s perfect for couples, or the best of friends. You’ll sample sweet things, and relax over wine. Show your welcome text to the bar staff at Vinoteca, the start point, to get two glasses of wine for the price of one.

Each clue directs you to a hidden location within walking distance, and asks you a question about your surroundings. If you text the correct answer back you’ll receive the next clue. All locations are free to enter.

Think you can solve the trail the fastest? The fastest team between Thursday 14th and Sunday 24th February inclusive wins a pair of tickets to a wine tasting evening at Bedales Wines.

How to enter and rules

1. You’ll automatically be entered into the competition if you sign up to the Cupid’s Conundrums trail and play between 14 and 24 February.

2. The competition is open to participants who have not played this trail before.

3. The team that completes the trail in the fastest time, accounting for any time penalties, wins a pair of tickets to a wine tasting evening in March 2013 at Bedales Wine Bar, London. See how to play.

Solve a trail of cryptic Christmas clues

We’ve partnered with Scout London, this year’s new free listings magazine, to give you a festive trail of clues through the city. Discover hidden places while revisiting some of our festive favourites. Starting at Somerset House’s brand new Lavazza lounge warm yourself up with a complimentary cup of gourmet coffee, then depart on a jolly journey – sip wine in cosy bars, see seasonal art and ramble under the riverside’s Christmas lights.

Play the Scout London Christmas Trail.

Win prizes

Think you’re skillful, creative or just plain lucky? Then you’re in for a chance to win luxury Fairtrade chocolate from Divine Chocolate, tickets to award-winning comedy at SoHo Theatre, and festive handmade ice creams from Ruby Violet. With a sackful of prizes worth £1,874 the odds are in your favour…

Enter while you’re on the trail, or within 24 hours of completing it, by sending a tweet mentioning @ScoutLondon and your team name, like this: “Just finished the @scoutlondon trail as team The Winners. We’re sure to win, right?”

Send a photo with your Tweet to be in with a chance of winning prizes for the Most Creative Team Photo that week.

Never sent a Tweet before? Here’s how to tweet.

How to win

Most creative team photos – three prizes each week: At the end of each week, HiddenCity will pick 3 winning team photos. 1st place team will win 4 tickets (£80 value) to see award winning comedy at the SoHo Theatre. 2nd and 3rd place teams will get free Christmas Ice Cream from Ruby Violet for their team (£20 value per team).

Fastest three teams each week: The team that finishes the trail with the fastest time each week receives an Ultimate Divine Chocolate Gift Set from Divine Chocolate (£53 value). The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place teams each week will also get a free Christmas Ice Cream from Ruby Violet for the whole team (£20 value per team).

Daily lucky dip: Each day HiddenCity will select a team that has completed the trail that day to win a stack of Fairtrade chocolate from Divine Chocolate (£8 value).

Special challenge: Each week HiddenCity will select a winner from the teams that have correctly solved the Special Challenge that is given at a secret point during the trail. The weekly winners will receive a Divine Christmas Essentials Gift Set from Divine Chocolate (£33 value).

Fastest overall team: The best of the best, fastest in the land, will receive 4 Luxury Divine Christmas Gift Sets (one per team member) (£280 value).

Weekly competitions will close at midday on Fridays in December 2012, and midday on Wednesday 2 January 2013.

The fine print

What these rules mean

1. By entering this competition the participant agrees to these rules, else the participant may be disqualified
2. The promoter is VeaPoint Ltd trading as HiddenCity, 5 Torrens Street, London EC1V 1NQ
3. The entrant is the person who signs up as a ‘team captain’

Registration

1. Entrants may only enter the competition once. You may complete the Scout London Christmas Trail as many times as you like, but will only be eligible for prizes on the first completion of the trail.
2. Employees of HiddenCity and Scout London will not be eligible to win competition prizes but may sign up and complete the Scout London Christmas Trail.
3. The entrant’s team name must be decent and not be deemed to cause offence.

Solving clues

1. You must visit every location. To be eligible for a prize, no member of your team may have played the Scout London Christmas trail before, and you must not seek help from anyone who has completed it.

Personal data and publicity

1. HiddenCity and Scout London may publish entrants’ names, team names and results. HiddenCity and Scout London will not publish other details.
2. HiddenCity and Scout London may use any photos and videos taken of participants for marketing purposes.

Entrants’ responsibilities

1. The entrant is responsible for informing participants of these rules and ensuring they follow them.
2. Participants are responsible for loss, damage or injury caused as a result of taking part in this competition.

Judging the competition

1. HiddenCity is the judge for the competition.
2. The judge’s decision is final.
3. The judge may choose to waive rules at their discretion.
4. The entrant may be asked to take part in a tie-breaker if an outright winner cannot be determined.
5. HiddenCity is not liable for situations that prevent the prize being taken up by the winner.

Receiving prizes

1. HiddenCity will notify the team captains of winning teams within 21 days of their respective competitions closing.
2. Entrants are required to reply with their postal address within 14 days of receiving this notification.
3. HiddenCity will deliver prizes through standard royal mail to the nominated address within 14 days of receiving postal address from entrant.

This month, crack any HiddenCity trail with a leaderboard time in the top 10% to receive a complimentary HiddenCity experience.

And regardless of your position, as long as you complete the trail you’ll be placed in a draw to win a £100 cash prize.

You can play any trail in any city. All trails are £16 per team, for any number of people in a team. If you play the Cryptic Covent Caper in London, for example, where 500 teams have played to date, your target is position 50, and your time to beat is 1 hour and 32 minutes. See your times to beat on the leaderboard.

How to enter:

1. Choose a hunt.

2. Enter voucher code OCTOBERCHALLENGE, then sign up as normal.

3. Play any day in October.

How to win

1. The top 10% prize: If at midnight on 31 October 2012 you’re in the top 10% on your chosen trail’s leaderboard then we’ll email the team captain a voucher for a complimentary HiddenCity trail. You can compete in as many trails as you like.

2. The £100 cash prize: the winner is selected at random from any team that enters the competition and completes a trail (regardless of your leaderboard position).

3. Rules:

(i) You must visit every location. No member of your team may have played the trail before, and you must not seek help from anyone who has completed it.

(ii) The captains for winning teams will be notified by email by midnight on 5 November 2012.

(iii) If you win the cash prize we’ll notify you by email. You’ll be asked to supply your bank account number and sort code within 14 days, then we’ll send you the cash.

That’s it! Simple.

Follow @intheHiddenCity

Since I started HiddenCity I’ve always wanted to hide something valuable, and challenge people on a trail of cryptic clues to find it. A test of pure skill.

On 28 August 2012, the dream became reality: an individual called The Insider hid £5,000 cash in London in an Eastpak backpack. The challenge was set: solve three mini HiddenCity trails to retrace The Insider’s steps, bringing you closer to the cash.

Here’s the video that was released hours after the cash was hidden, showing The Insider’s journey:

The concept was simple: three challenges over three weeks, launched by videos, each taking about an hour. However a secret lay within: it was possible to identify the location of the cash from watching the videos carefully enough.

See if you can work it out yourself: watch the challenges at insidertrail.eastpak.com/challenges.

Never underestimate the power of a dedicated HiddenCity player, their commitment demonstrated by their tweets:

• “I couldn’t sleep for dreaming of clues.” - Gingle
• “So suspicious of anyone carrying any sort of bag or walking around looking at their phone.” - Lauren Wellicome
• “Obsessive behaviour alert: participating in HiddenCity’s fun-but-frustrating #Eastpaktrail £5k challenge = a state of permanent distraction.” - Clea Marshall

The final location, which we can now reveal, was Frank’s Cafe in Peckham. A secret that we’ve had to keep tight-lipped about for four weeks. The very word ‘Peckham’ was never spoken, referred to only at ‘Zone 4′.

But the day after the third challenge was released, on Friday 14 September, reports started coming in that people were searching in Peckham for the cash. Frank’s Cafe called us to say that someone was asking the bar staff questions. Then Peckham Space, an art gallery, sent us an email to say that another man was looking.

Despite the increasing discussion amongst the teams about where the cash might be, the cash still wasn’t found 24 days after being hidden, and as promised in the introductory video, a showdown must take place. The showdown would ensure that there’s a winner. It was eligible to all teams that had solved all three challenges.

So on Thursday 20 September at 2pm, 57 teams were invited to a final showdown at a secret location at 1pm on Saturday 22nd. On the day, at 9.15am, the start location for the showdown was announced as Peckham Rye Common, and a warning that you might have missed something… 

What did you miss? Looking back over the video challenges you’ll find three important codes. And the most important of these are a pair of digits in videos 2 and 3. Those digits are 7565 and 4097. As you can see in the video above, their significance was not explained.

I headed over to the start location just before 1pm so I could witness the first moments. The teams stood waiting quietly. Then the first clue came in: “Remove MHXTYGQJZUODSWFVP from a familiar letter sequence then rearrange and tell us which lane it is.” The resulting clue… which required you to go nowhere, resulted in all the teams planting their bums on the grass for careful clue-cracking…

The remaining clues required participants to visit other locations and by 1.10pm half the teams were onto clue 2.

At 2.07pm team Malta was in the lead and solving the penultimate clue. But it was a tricky one… this vital clue explained you needed to shift each digits in 7565 and 4097 to reveal the coordinates of the cash, using your A-Z. Twenty minutes later team Malta were still solving it, but now with 15 other teams.

This led to a frantic conclusion. Team JHECK overtook Malta, and arrived at the final location, Frank’s cafe, at 2.45pm. Their final task to find table 101 and make a rather unusual order: ‘Plank 47′. That code gave something useful: a screwdriver to access a void under the scaffolding plank 47. My snap of cash-finding jubilation is here:

So that’s everything uncovered.

…oh, but who is The Insider?