What is a Repair Café?

What do you do with a chair when the leg has come loose? A lamp that no longer works? A toaster that no longer toasts? A holey jumper? Throw it away? No way! We help organise and support weekend sessions of fixing and skill-sharing in Haringey Community Centres and high streets.

We’ve been helping local people get help to fix their household stuff by matching them with our team of volunteer repairers since April 2022.

Currently on a Saturday or Sunday around lunch time in two community centres (Lordship Rec Hub and Broadwater Farm) o, with plans to open a high street location in March and more to come across Haringey.

‘Bringers’ book a free half-hour slot so as to bring in any ordinary household item that a normal person could carry in. So no Fridge Freezers please 🙂

Our repairers may be experienced fixers but are often simply local people who are prepared to use their common sense to ‘troubleshoot’ problems. They know when to call in a more experienced fixer. Lots of people have got the common sense that’s all that’s needed to help repair most broken things.

Repair Cafés are community events where local people get together to fix collaboratively and often learn new skills in the process.

We hope that fixing brings about a shift in consumerism so we throw less away. We skill-share and build community. If you bring something that needs fixing, we can help bring it back to life instead of keeping it unused in a drawer or throwing it away.

Around two-thirds of what is brought in gets fixed – see everything we’ve ever encountered here and please book a free slot at our next Café here.

We helped someone fix a fan
We helped someone fix a fan