What a Saturday at the repair café fixes

Thirty-one things came through the door of the small hall on the third Saturday of October, and twenty-six went home working.

The list, as written on the sign-in sheet: nine lamps, five toasters and kettles, four coats and a pair of trousers, three bikes, two chairs, a radio, a sewing machine, a laptop that wouldn’t start, a child’s scooter, a vacuum cleaner, a clock and a hearing-aid charger.

The lamp from 1962

The best of the day was a desk lamp with a green glass shade, the kind the reading room had before the war. Its owner’s father bought it in 1962. The switch had gone and the flex was perished. Forty minutes, a new switch and a metre of fabric cable later, it was back on.

How it works

You sign in at the door and say what’s broken. A fixer calls you to their table, and you mend it together: the point is that you can do it yourself next time. If it needs a part, we tell you which one and where to get it.

It is free. There is a tin for donations, which buys the spare fuses and cable.

The next repair café is on Saturday 21 November, 13:00 to 16:00, in Canal Hall.