St Andrews Repair & Advice Cafe
Our wonderful team of volunteers can help you fix clothes, jewellery, chipped ceramics, and electrical items – all for FREE!
Sharing resources, including skills and knowledge, sits at the heart of every strong community. As well as keeping your belongings out of the waste stream, you can also learn a little more about how every day objects are often quite easily fixed. We live in a highly throwaway society but it doesn’t have to be that way.
There is also plenty of sewing equipment, including a machine, for you to use too, if you would like to have go yourself. And there will be FREE refreshments for you to enjoy and lovely like-minded people from across the community for you to meet.
We also have a Linux specialist available to advise. Do you have an old laptop (from around 2014-2018)? Did you know that Microsoft Windows ceased to be supported on these models as of October 2025? Come and talk to Thomas, a computer specialist at the University, about how to install a free alternative operating system called Linux so you can keep using your laptop. They will explain how to ensure you keep all your data safe in the process, and they can also advise on sourcing second-hand laptops to install Linux on. More info here.
We will also have a special sock and jumper darning skillshare corner so you cna come and learn how to do this yourself!
We are keen to promote upcycling, where items destined for the bin have been repurposed and transformed. There will be a table showcasing a range of upcycled items so do come along and get inspired. If you have any upcycled items of your own, please bring them along to show us. We’re always learning!
Everyone is welcome! Join the repair movement and be a part of the change! Please note that for electrical items, you need to pre-book a slot by emailing transition @ st-andrews.ac.uk.
BACKGROUND
The St Andrews Repair & Advice Café launched in January 2024 with funding from the University of St Andrews’ Community Fund. In 2025 it was awarded further funding from the Fife Climate Hub. It takes place on the 2nd/3rd Wednesday of the month and is part of the International Repair Cafe Movement.
Every month we have a team of volunteer repairers helping to repair electrical items, clothes and bags and sometimes we have volunteers helping repair chipped ceramics, musical instruments, bikes and jewellery. This varies from one month to the next depending on their availability.
For anything electrical it is important to email us [transition@st-andrews.ac.uk] beforehand, to tell us what you would like to get fixed and we can let you know if it is likely to be fixable. You are still very welcome to come along with an electrical or wooden item, but there may not be time to get to your item if you haven’t been in touch beforehand. If you have a musical instrument that needs to be fixed then as our volunteer repairer is happy to receive email enquiries outwith the Cafe sessions.
In addition, we run an advisory service (which varies from one month to the next) alongside the repairs to diagnose faults with items, raise awareness about what is and isn’t fixable and how to look after what we own in order to minimize the risk of items breaking and falling apart. So far this has included IT devices, shoe and bag repairs, and clocks and watches. We are also looking to offer advice in other areas of sustainability, be that energy efficiency in our homes, how to run a small business sustainably, sustainable period products, heat pumps, green finance and pensions, or anything else.
There will be free refreshments, books/magazines to browse and lots of lovely people to chat to. In 2024 the Cafe rotated locations, so it was a chance to peek inside places you may not have been into before, and learn more about how great your local town is – previous cafes have been in the North East Fife Community Hub, Cafe Zest, Victory Memorial Hall, the Eco Hub Refill Shop, The Scottish Oceans Institute and Walter Bower House Register on this page to receive an email reminder about what the repair cafe will offer each month.
Please note, Dairsie’s Repair Cafe meets on the last Wednesday of each month and Tayport’s Repair Café on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. So you can go to theirs and come to ours.
PREVIOUS CAFES
We have hosted a Heat Pumps advisor, an advisor on how to save energy in your home, and we have welcomed the University’s PC Clinic who gave advice on device optimization and security and took donations for the charity Reusing IT. We have also hosted a discussion on running a socially-responsible and sustainable cafe, had an advisor on hand talking about eco homes, a Madras College Food Tech teacher doing a cooking demonstration for low-energy, sustainable, healthy meals, and a lovely local lady doing knife sharpening. We have also hosted a Student Union representative giving out free sustainable period products. If you have any ideas for future Cafes please get in touch, or if you can offer a skill/ advice on a topic related to sustainability, we would love to hear from you.
FUTURE CAFES in 2026:
Thursday 29th May
Friday 25th June
Thursday 20th August
Friday 25th September
Thursday 22nd October
Friday 20th November
Thursday 17th December
