The Repair Cafe in Nunhead, South London, meets once a month on Saturday to repair clothes, appliances, and even doll’s furniture! In a stand against the modern throw-away culture, a bunch of hobbyists fix things for free…or a donation if you can afford it, which pays for the space in the local community centre.
Started by Sophie off her own bat, around 15 fixers get involved in anything. Although mending clothes and electrical appliances are mainstays of the cafe, when I first joined, one of the team was bringing back to functionality a beautiful, antique, wooden rocking-horse. A surprise is how older, treasured appliances, like food mixers, can be taken apart and, for example, a burnt-out motor can be replaced from Ebay. Fixers often get told, “I’ve got a new mixer, but it’s not as good as this old one. I much prefer using this.” Veteran appliances also are better made and more robust.
I’ve been naming myself “Mr Glue” to bring some extra skills to the mix. I can’t sew, and I certainly can’t bring the depth of expertise that the electrical specialists have. I brought a small vice to the first event that I joined the fixers, and have repaired a couple of beloved rings, which is another item that gets damaged or squashed and can be easy to sort out, to the delight of their owners.
Although it is fun, there is some stress involved, particularly if you can’t fix a child’s toy: adults can accept failure, but you can sense the disappointment of a kid, when their racing car or whatever is defunct.
The philosophy behind the cafe is to restore items that would be thrown away and go to landfill. It is an extension of the environmental movement, where every new item has carbon emissions costs associated with its production. The Repair Movement has won some victories, for example the EU forcing Apple, which was notorious for not making its phones and tablets “user repairable” backtrack on this.
Given the current economic conditions, some people come to the cafe, for repairs, because they cannot afford to replace the item. Some of the repairers spent hours fixing an ancient vacuum cleaner once, even going outside so they could finish it after the session officially ended. The vroom of a vacc never sounded sweeter.
One of the lessons of the movement is that lots of appliances are easily repairable. Even “top” brands like Sony can have simple defects. I was brought a radio, which wasn’t working. The owner said she had googled it and found it “Could be repaired with a paperclip.” When I took it to pieces, I found that the plastic switch, which operated the electronic microswitch inside, was broken. Once I removed the defective part and put it back together, a paperclip would be ideal to fiddle the switch along its track. But if Sony had made the main switch out of a stronger plastic, this wouldn’t have happened. It’s a common observation amongst the fixers: that often critical, much-used components like switches, are far too weak. So they break. It’s almost like the manufacturers like it that way…
Last month, Sophie wasn’t sewing away, but cloistered in the back of the room with four people in earnest discussion. It turns out they wanted to start a Repair Cafe in Brixton and were looking for advice. I like it when an idea’s time has come and it spreads naturally.
The Repair Cafe’s facebook page is here.
It meets on the last Saturday of every month (not December) from 1pm-4pm at The Green, Nunhead Green, London SE15 3QQ.