St Ives Repair Cafe – Fix it, don’t throw it. Learn to repair together.
Got something in need of fixing? Whether it’s a favourite shirt or jacket with a tear, a non-working bicycle or rusted garden tools and scissors – don’t throw it away! Bring it to us, and we’ll do our best to help restore it.
Welcome to the St Ives Repair Café, a community initiative hosted in the Core of St Ives Community Orchard. A place where people come together to repair broken or cherished items, guided by skilled volunteer repairers and pick up new skills in the process. Even if you don’t have anything to repair, you’re welcome to enjoy a cup of tea or coffee or lend a hand with someone else’s repair.
Tools are provided for repairing a wide range of items and is dependant on what repairers join us, they can help with things like:
Reduce waste, share valuable skills, and strengthen community connections, one repair at a time. Let’s work together to create a more sustainable future. We look forward to welcoming you to our Repair Café!
Date of next repair cafe?
4th July, 12th September and 7th November 2026
We need more repair volunteers?
If you have any repairing skills you’d like to put to good use, please get in touch. We are looking for people who are handy with fixing clothing /electrical appliances / bicycles / computers / furniture/wooden objects etc.
Also looking for volunteers happy to act as host or hostess, providing everyone with coffee and tea and directing visitors with repairs to the relevant repair experts.
Call repair cafe organiser Rachel on 07720 523817 or email repaircafestives@gmail.com if you are interested in becoming a volunteer at our Repair Cafe or have any questions.
Optional – Pre-register your Repair
Save yourself time by preregistering your repair. The advantage is that we can advise you ahead of time if we think we can or can’t help or perhaps if buying a spare part in advance will be required. This is optional so you don’t need to do it!
Fill in your details on our Pre-register your Repair form.
Our volunteer repairers:
- Marion Heasman / Sue Osborne / Jo McIntosh / Jo Dereza – Textiles (Sewing, darning, fixing)
- Jo Dereza – Sewing, alterations, pattern-making, mending
- Nick Waitz – electrical and all sorts
- Mike Abraham – Electrics, soldering (Treverbyn Community Trust volunteer)
- John Meardon – Tool sharpening
- Rob Rowlands – Musical instruments (guitars & ukuleles), stringing, tuning, and guitar-making
- Tom Dyer – General handyman / Master guitar tuner
- Fyna Stidwell – wetsuit repairs
- Duwayne Langley – Electrician / Handyman
- Bob Gale – Electrician / Handyman
- Rob Marshall – Ceramics, specializing in Kintsugi (Japanese pottery repair art)
- Dan Harding – Metal work / Handyman
- Marc Clemens – Wood and metalwork, master tinkerer, jewellery repairs
- Sue Smith – Kitchen helper / sewing & knitting
Repair Cafés, how they got started & the benefits:
A Repair Café is typically a free monthly event where volunteers with various skills gather to help community members fix household items, saving them from the landfill. Repair Cafés began in 2009 when Martine Postma launched the first one in Amsterdam, and the movement has since spread worldwide. These community-driven initiatives help develop practical skills, reduce waste and CO2 emissions, and foster a culture of sustainability. For more details about the movement and helpful resources, visit their website.
There are now over 2,000 Repair Cafés worldwide, with more than 130 in the UK—double the number in 2019. The focus is on skill-sharing and an enjoyable ongoing learning process.
Benefits:
- Knowing how to fix things is a skill quickly being lost to our modern society and with a Repair Café, invaluable practical knowledge is passed on
- Extending the lifespan of items reduces the need to discard them, keeping usable goods out of landfills.
- Reduces the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new items. It cuts CO2 emissions for example, because manufacturing new products and recycling old ones causes CO2 to be released.
- The community can continue to enjoy and use their cherished possessions instead of discarding them.
- Participants gain hands-on experience from volunteer repairers, learning how to fix their own devices and appliances.
- Repairing items instead of replacing them saves money.
Repair Cafés also encourage people to view their belongings in a new light, appreciate their value, and embrace a sustainable lifestyle. It’s an ongoing learning process.
Repair Cafe Resources:
To help other repair cafe’s, here’s a resource of all the documents we used to run the repair cafe.
Repair Cafe Attendee Disclaimer
Repair Cafe Repairer Guidelines
Cornwall Council help with insurance – //www.cornwall.gov.uk/rubbish-recycling-and-waste/recycling/repair-cafes/
Join their network – //www.cornwall.gov.uk/rubbish-recycling-and-waste/recycling/repair-cafes/repair-cafe-form/
Example of our poster below.
References:
www.bbc.com/article/20210128-right-to-repair-how-the-french-are-fighting-avoidable-waste
//www.rethinkingpoverty.org.uk/the-repair-cafe-what-can-we-learn-from-it/
Funding
Our first two workshops were funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Cornwall Council has been chosen by Government as a Lead Authority for the fund and is responsible for monitoring the progress of projects funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
