For those of you familiar with the BBC programme The Repair Shop that dates back to 2017 ,  very feel good and frequently emotional, with experts in their field restoring family heirlooms, furniture, music boxes, instruments, you name it, to near pristine condition , you might not be aware of the Repair Café charitable movement that predates the TV programme by around 8 years.

 I do like the Dutch, comes from a six- month posting in Amsterdam, when I was just a lad, so far back it was almost before cheese was invented. The founder of the Repair Café, Martine Postma from Amsterdam, developed the Repair Café idea in 2009, that went international in 2011 and has since become a global charitable movement.

There is a slight clue in both the TV programme and the Repair Cafe name as to what goes on in both, so let me give you an idea of the difference. For Repair Shop TV, think highly technical painting repair,  fixing a 50-year-old doll's house with miniscule furniture inside, most having a great story behind them with only 3 or 4 repairs per programme. For Repair Café, think  Henry Hoover, or family member Hetty, which I personally viewed being brought back to life, shears sharpened, clothing mended and maybe 40 or 50 repairs per café depending on location, made to various items that may otherwise have ended up in landfill.  

This website is the starting point  for  those looking to set up a Repair Café, find one to  get something repaired,  make a donation, or just to drop in to have a coffee, homemade  cake, and a chat.  I did exactly that in the two I dropped in on.

 I chatted to the Revd Michael Gentry, Associate Rector of the Benefice of Chelsfield, who is in charge of the Repair Café project there. Fortuitously less than half a mile from where I live, based in a road with the challenging name for any faith looking to establish a place of worship  - Worlds End Lane. To date his repair team have prevented about 500 items from going to landfill and breaks even on costs.

I also met Father Stephen, who was one day away from retiring at the time, age 70, at St Francis of Assisi, Petts Wood, who was also a repairer.

 Incidentally, Petts Wood has a massive claim to fame felt across the globe as recently as one month ago, when the clocks went back an hour. Look up William Willett, a Petts Wood resident over 100 years ago who is responsible for Daylight Saving time. Puts Orpington in the shade where I live, known mainly for giving its name to a breed of chicken.

The numbers of Repair Cafes are constantly increasing, so this is just a snapshot taken on September 25th. However, during my visit to the two above, another visitor was there prior to opening another Café about 5 miles away and wanted to see one in action and talk to the organisers. There is no element of competition between them, everyone there is on the same side, assistance is freely given, and repairers are frequently happy to give their time to more than one RC, depending on the skillsets that are in demand.

Repair Café numbers.

Globally -  3,760

UK    - 450

Near me - 2, soon to be 3.   

How does it work?

The Repair Cafes above open up once a month, both on Church premises as it happens  but Café's can be opened anywhere that works financially and being about 5 miles apart, they do communicate, pop-up on different Saturdays  and have an established bank of repairers, some shared and no idea what the public will bring for them to fix.

 Items are logged in and where possible the person bringing in the repair will sit with the repairer and can donate depending on their circumstances if the repair is successful.  They might also learn from the repairer how to fix the item to be repaired if it happens again. 

In both RC's there was a lot of sewing going on, I understand it's one of the most popular repairs and the local seamstress  here was  busy patching and stitching f a variety of garments by hand and machine. Her daughter was also assisting in a repair that needs a little explanation. She is called in when a smaller hand and indeed an arm in this  repair, is required to retrieve screws, wires and fuses from the object brought in, which in this case was a pottery or ceramic lamp and what better place to be in to see the light I thought to myself . There was a lot of concentration going on by both parties looking for the "light bulb" moment but nowhere near it, so I did my best to assist this job...... by quietly sloping off to the coffee and cake counter.       

A week later I turned up at Petts Wood Repair Café, a more central location and very busy, with a dedicated volunteer needed to book in the constant flow of visitors and what their team needed to fix, including a bike that had seen better days. 

After a brief chat with Father Stephen, chief repairer for just a few more hours, I had a good look around from the coffee counter munching a slice of homemade cake of Bake Off quality, chatting as it turned out to the husband of the cake maker, while there was some serious repairing going on.  

In every corner of a good size hall, sewing and grinding machines were in action, logged  incoming jobs were everywhere, as were boxes of what I assumed were potential spare parts and fixers were seriously fixing things , occasionally needing an online part reference or guide and adding to the "job done" tally.

Thoughts

Nothing but good comes out of these repair Cafes, top benefit as already mentioned, reducing landfill. Visitors saving money and the hugely positive community spirit you can feel, comes a close second. Exchanging skills is also a major plus point and for some people just dropping in a for a coffee and a chat is something to look forward to, whatever side of the repair you are on. I did ask both men of the cloth, patched or otherwise, whether the repair activity increased congregation numbers, but both said the Café's are totally separate projects and there is no crossover, run very successfully.

Check out the website link here for details of your nearest Repair Café and the dates they pop up on.

Chris Westcott

Director New Business