Gravesham Repair Café

Of particular note, today, was our new volunteer Andrew who is a whizz at electronics repair.   Andrew makes a living refurbishing electronics and has decades of experience with computers. Our usual photographer was unable to attend so photos are in short supply.  Get well soon, Janet. We others did out usual thing with repairs to vacuum cleaners, tape recorders, a cherished doll, an electric typewriter and more besides. We record each repair with the visitor's name in case further contact is required regarding spare parts etc.  And the visitor is able to leave their own comment about their experience.  Here's one such comment section:  And here are the few photos of the day starting with new member Andrew.    

This post includes photos from our Vigo Repair Café. What a lot of clocks!  We also safe-deleted a laptop hard disk so the machine could be passed on to a new owner.  The ladies who make emergency blankets from empty crisp packets were present, various electricals were revived, and there was a deal of sewing taking place. Not forgetting the garden lopper with damaged mechanism and, of course, bikes. We were busy two days earlier at Gravesend, but our usual photographer wasn't able to take snaps.  

  Gravesham Repair Café We repair broken household items - bikes, clothes, electricals, clocks and more. Repair events normally take place on:  the 1st Thursday of the month between 10am and 2pm St George's Church Hall, Gravesend  DA11 0DJ and the 2nd Saturday of the month between 10am and 2pm at Vigo Village Hall, The Bay, Vigo Village DA13 0TD     See our calendar page St George's Church Hall  Vigo Village Hall   We are staffed by volunteers with plenty of repair experience.  Members of the public are welcome to drop in with their broken items and we'll do our best to get those items working again. Since we held our first event at the end of 2023 we have repaired trouser zips, missing buttons, clocks that won't run, radios that don't play, food mixers that don't start - and much more besides - especially bikes. Find us also at our Facebook Page How it works On arriving, bring your item to the Reception desk where we note the issue and allocate...

A repair café is so called because not only do people get things repaired for free, they also benefit from a café offering free hot drinks and more.  This is especially appreciated by anyone who has to wait a while during the repairs. We can afford this because many of our visitors are happy donate a small amount in return for the repair or drink. Indeed some visitors are willing to pose with their newly repaired item though many more successful repairs go without mention.  On this particular day there were plenty of other items being dealt with and here's that work in progress.

It was a bumper crop of items brought for repair.  In addition to those shown in the photos, we had more clocks, garden tools for sharpening, clothing to be mended... all the usual things. Our new signage placed around the town centre on the day was noticed as evidenced by the comments received. Every member of our team gives their time and expertise for free and the kind hearted donations from visitors provide the funds for hall rental and supplies of tools etc.  Thank you. We are happy for visitors to bring their well behaved dogs as you'll see in the photos below.