Sustainable Didcot - Repair Cafe

The Didcot Repair Cafe runs on the third Saturday of every month.

The Didcot Repair Cafes will be held from 2pm to 5pm at The Green Hub. See the "What's On" section of our website for upcoming dates.

Just turn up anytime from 2pm. Bring your broken or worn out items, and see if our team of fixers can help you repir them! It's a friendly, welcoming atmosphere and there are refreshments, seating, and toilets available. Please ask one of the team if you need anything once you've arrived.

We can't guarantee we can repair your items, but our fixers will do what they can, and may be able to tell you where to take an item if they can't fix it here.

Items we might be able to fix include...

Clothes with rips, tears, missing buttons, or holes that need patching
Electronics such as cameras, kitchen food processors, or power tools
Tools that need sharpening such as garden shears or kitchen knives (please get in touch to find out if a tool sharpener will be present!)
If your item is especially big and bulky, or you're not sure if it's suitable to bring in, send us an email or message us on our social media first and we can advise.

Could You Help?

Do you have a knack for fixing up broken electronics, or a steady hand with a needle? We are always in need of more fixers and we'd love you to join our little team. There's no obligation, just come when you can.

We use a whatsapp group to plan who can come which months and you're welcome to join it.

It's a fun, friendly afternoon and you can chat with others or sit quietly and get to fixing if you'd rather - with plenty of tea, coffee, and cake!

At the Repair Cafe, we will try to fix broken household items in a collaborative and social way. We will have expert volunteer fixers on hand to work with you to support:

repairs of household electrical items (including computers)
advice with simple computer problems
gluing broken items/toys
mending clothes/up-cycling/fabric crafts
clocks, watches and mechanical items
jewellery
sharpening knives, tools, etc.
bicycles

We're particularly interested in repairing electrical items as part of a large county wide project to tackle waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). We will PAT test any electrical items to make sure they are safe.

So, bring along your broken (or unwanted) electrical items, household items and clothes or blunt tools and we will try to help you repair them. Please don’t bring anything that you can’t carry (contact us if you are unsure!). You can also donate any unwanted electrical items for us, and we will test them and pass them on to a new home.

The idea is not to provide an anonymous fixing service, but help people learn what needed to be done so that they can gain knowledge from the experts. The items that we can fix will depend entirely on the expertise of our volunteer fixers.

You can find more details about the Repair Cafe concept, and the international network of repair cafes here.

Thanks to IN DIDCOT, this blog post describes what happened at our May 2019 Repair Cafe!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you give more details of what exactly I can bring?

You can bring any small household electrical item (e.g. kettle, radio, hifi, lamp, etc.). Please don't bring white goods or anything you can't carry. You can also bring watches, clocks or mechanical items (e.g. gramophone, metronome etc.). We probably won't have spare parts if they are needed, but hopefully will be able to recommend what is needed.

We should be able to help with advice about simple computer problems (hardware, or software, or a tune-up), so bring your laptops etc. (or just come with a question for advice).

You can bring any broken item that needs gluing - e.g. china, plastic toys etc. We will have various kinds of glue such as araldite, super glue etc.

You can bring clothes or fabrics - we can help with buttons, simple patches, or up-cycling suggestions. We will have experts with sewing machines to help you.

You can bring tools or knives for sharpening.

Note: we cannot fix the following items: white goods, CRTs, microwaves, any safety related item (smoke alarm etc.), or weapons of any kind.

It is also very difficult to fix iPads/mobiles, so better to take those to a professional.

If you are unsure, please contact us.

What about bicycles?

Yes!!! Bikes will be seen outside. If you are interested in helping out with bicycles, please contact us!

Will it cost anything?

No, there is no charge to enter or to fix anything (but we would be happy to receive a donation to cover the costs of room hire, parts and refreshments if we manage to fix your item!).

Do I need to let you know in advance, or just turn up?

Feel free to drop by anytime, and our volunteers will help diagnose what's wrong and fix your items. If it gets busy, we may ask you to wait a short while until a fixer becomes free!

Will you definitely be able to fix my item?

Our fixers are all volunteers and we can't guarantee to fix everything - some things may require spare parts, or be outside of our expertise (or just too complicated to fix on the spot). In this case we will try to advise you what needs to be done, or suggest someone else to go to.

If my item is unfixable, can I leave it with you to be recycled?

If something really is unfixable, we would prefer if you took it back and recycled it yourself.

Can I drop off broken items that might be fixable, but that I don't want back?

Please check with us in advance before bringing something to donate - our storage space is extremely limited! Contact us at sustainabledidcot@gmail.com

Do I need to bring something to come along, or can I just come to see what its about?

Feel free to stop by for a chat, even if you don't have something for us to fix!

What about the existing repair shops in Didcot - are you trying to compete with them?

No, we're not trying to compete with professional repair shops - we would actually like to support them! We're aiming to fix small things and things that repair shops don't want to deal with. Let us know if you think there's a problem, and we'll try to take account of it. We won't have any spares, and we will direct you to one of the professional repair shops for more complicated fixes. We're trying to compile a list of the best places to take items for repair locally - let us know if there is someone to add to the list.

Can I help out?

If you have some skills that you'd like to share, then we'd love to hear from you! The Repair Cafe is about helping people fix things in a collaborative way and sharing skills. We're all volunteers, and we can always use some extra help - maybe thats helping fix things, or helping at the reception desk directing people to fixers, or getting involved with planning and publicity. If you are interested, email sustainabledidcot@gmail.com

Are there other local Repair Cafes?

Yes!

There are regular Repair Cafes in Wantage, Abingdon, Wallingford and Cholsey, and quite a few in Oxford.

When will the next Repair Cafe be happening?

The 2024 Didcot Repair Cafes will be in The Green Hub from 2pm to 5pm on the third Saturday of the month.