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Remembering Nik Thorpe

2026-06-20

Remembering Nik Thorpe — Science Alive in Harlow, Cleveratom’s TV studio, Essex, and a colleague who stayed decent when the project around him got messy.

20 June 2026 Just heard the news. What a shock. Nik Thorpe was an absolute legend of a guy. I worked alongside him at Science Alive in Harlow — the interactive science park that opened in the summer of 2010. Cleveratom had the TV studio area in there. We were trying to help shape a place where people of all ages could play with science, media and making things — not just look at exhibits from behind a rope. Nik was in the thick of that. Proper hands-on. Proper curiosity. The sort of colleague who made a mad building feel like it might actually work. Science Alive itself did not have a happy ending. By 2011 the whole thing had gone sideways — non-payment, van round the back, ripping our kit back out of a place that never quite became what it should have been. Years later the unit was something else entirely . Ghost of a business past. But that is not how I remember Nik. I remember the bloke who showed up, worked hard, stayed decent when the project around him got messy. We crossed paths again later when he was with the University of Essex — another project, same Nik. Still curious. Still kind. Still the genuine article. He even came down to our shop to show support. That says everyt…

Topics: ReflectionLearning technologyFamily

Matthew Eaves — escape room franchise founder, operator, and writer. Also: franchise, posts, contact.