Welcome to the FaB Repair Café Website, serving Fetcham, Bookham, Effingham and surrounding areas

The aim of our Repair Café is to:

  • Reduce landfill waste by repairing broken items
  • Share knowledge and skills
  • Create a social space where people can meet

Who are we?

The repair café was started by members of Bookham and Horsley Rotary Club along with St. Mary’s Church and a team of local volunteers all with the goal of living more sustainably and helping the environment by repairing items and reducing landfill.

Why are we running the Café?

Lots of items get thrown away sometimes with almost nothing wrong with them which could easily be repaired with just a little bit of know-how. Our team of volunteers can share their knowledge and offer you help and advice on how the item can be repaired, reused or recycled.

When and where?

The repair café meets on the first Saturday of every month at St. Mary’s Church Hall in Fetcham. The address is 10a Ridgeway, Fetcham, Surrey KT22 9AZ.

Please drive in from The Ridgeway – the road is a one-way system that leads out onto Lower Road.

There is a free car park with disabled parking by the hall. If the car park is full it is possible to park along the entrance road as shown in the photo above.

The repair café is open from 10.00am until 1.00pm with last repairs being accepted at 12.30pm.

The next repair cafés are taking place on:

  • SATURDAY 6TH APRIL 2024
  • SATURDAY 4TH MAY 2024
  • SATURDAY 1ST JUNE 2024

What is a repair café?

Our repair café is an event usually lasting 3 hours on the first Saturday of the month where you can bring broken possessions to be fixed by volunteer repairers. You stay with the repairer while the work is being done so that you can see the work being carried out and maybe help yourself. One of the goals is that everyone will one day be able to repair their own items.

There is no charge, but donations are welcome to help cover costs.

The repair café helps to promote learning new skills and to save waste by less items being dispose off in landfill. The first repair café was started by Martine Postma in Amsterdam in 2009 and its great success led to the Repair Café Foundation being established. The Foundation provides advice and help in setting up and maintaining repair cafés and also supports campaigns such as the “Right to Repair” laws requiring manufacturers to make it easy to repair their products and to provide spare parts for at least 10 years.

There are over 3,000 repair cafés worldwide with more than 300 in the UK and the number is growing fast all the time. For further information on repair cafés please visit:

https://www.repaircafe.org/en/

To watch a Repair Café in action please visit:

https://youtu.be/Ur2DH7wG6BY?si=be0A2-ZXcEFZlgvC

Services Offered

Please bring your broken household items and our team of skilled volunteers will do their very best to try to repair them. Items you can bring include:

  • Bikes
  • Clothing & Textiles
  • Electrical
  • Mechanical
  • IT
  • Jewellery
  • Wooden items

Some repairs may need a little more time and are best done in a workshop. Our repairers can help with that so please do bring your item along for our experts to see what can be done.

Please ensure that items arrive in a reasonably clean state, e.g. crumbs out of toasters, empty vacuum cleaners, and the grass clippings from lawn mowers etc. Please ensure that textiles are freshly laundered.

Donations are welcome to help cover our costs, which include public liability insurance, additional tools and materials.

When you arrive we will ask you to register your item and sign the house rules.

When it is your turn, you can sit with the repairer so that you can see how it is done and maybe also help and learn something new (and enjoy a drink and a piece of cake in the process!). Repairs are carried out free of charge by volunteers.

Contact

Volunteers

Can you help or know someone who can help? Do you have sewing skills? Are you good with electrics? Can you build a flat pack? We are always looking for help from more amazing volunteers for both repairing items and administration skills helping to run the café itself – if you would like more information please get in touch.

Our email address is: fabrepaircafe@gmail.com

Other repair cafés

Dorking

https://www.facebook.com/dorkingrepaircafe/?locale=en_GB

Epsom

https://www.facebook.com/groups/786507392173244/

Farnham

https://frc.cfsd.org.uk/

Godalming

https://godalming-tc.gov.uk/repair-cafe-godalming/

Guildford

https://www.facebook.com/RepairCafeGuildford/?locale=en_GB

Oxshott

https://www.oxshottnetzero.org.uk/repair-cafe/

Sutton

https://suttonrepaircafe.co.uk/

Walton on Thames

https://elmbridgeecohub.org.uk/repair-cafe/