Rage Rooms Norwich Roundtree Way entertainment centre review

Have you ever felt so angry that you’ve wanted to smash whatever items are closest to you? If the answer is yes, visiting a rage room is a must.

The perfect way to free yourself of any pent-up frustration, it’s more than worth making the journey to Norwich to give the city’s popular iteration a try. 

Tucked away in an industrial estate in Roundtree Way, you’d never know it’s here. However, immediately after stepping inside the building, the sensory overload begins, with the noise of random household items being smashed into smithereens. 

While the sound hits you like a tonne of bricks - thankfully not literally - the waiting area boasts a giant wall mural and loads of old fashioned paintings with rage-themed messages added to them. 

After taking a moment to, as manager Danny Shaw puts it, “sign your life away”, it’s time to step through to the main part of the rage room.  

Following choosing some fetching boiler suits (there are red, blue and black options), it’s time to swap trainers for chunky workman boots and put a balaclava and motor cross-style helmet on.  

A thorough health and safety talk follows before we’re chaperoned into our own rage room, in which a table centrepiece full of household objects awaits. 

With two makeshift weapons of varying heaviness to choose from, it’s then time to let the adrenaline run and begin smashing through a basket’s worth of crockery that your grandparents would likely keep in a cabinet. 

There are also three hooks with tea cups hanging from the ceiling, which gives smashers the opportunity to try out their swinging skills. Larger household items - for example, a kettle, fan heater and bin - are available at an extra cost.

“We’ve been non-stop over half-term,” says manager Danny, whose time is split between welcoming guests, preparing the rage rooms, sweeping up debris and sifting through recyclable items. 

The business - which is centred around household clearances and donations from local people - is the brainchild of a scaffolder and roofer, who envisage the rage room as their long-term retirement plan. 

“They built it all themselves,” Danny says, adding that the building was formerly an empty warehouse. 

Having initially started out in a much smaller unit five years ago, the team felt they needed more space and bigger rooms. 

The move to a larger premises has paid off, he adds; while they have since welcomed ragers from as far as Chelmsford, they’ve also been able to open their own paint-ball (ages 6+) and graffiti rooms in the same building.

Alongside the rage room, these have proved popular with stag and hen groups. It’s also a rather unique and quirky way of celebrating a birthday. 

Some have visited for more personal reasons, too: while families have had quiet music on while painting together, one man who was struggling with his mental health obliterated an entire washing machine by himself. 

As the experience is suitable for youngsters (if accompanied by an adult), parents of children who regularly misbehave have said that their sons and daughters returned from the rage room - which also offers a selection of kids’ toys - comparatively chilled. 

It’s also proved a hit with people coming out of break-ups: “one woman who brought all her ex’s stuff to smash up said it was like therapy”, says Danny. 

With all the items recycled, and a great outlet for anyone struggling with their mental health, it’s easy to see why rage rooms like this one in Norwich are proving so popular. 

ragerooms-norwich.co.uk