Repair & Advice Cafe
Join your local repair revolution!! Our lovely team of volunteer repairers will fix, for FREE, clothes/bags, chipped ceramics and electrical items at our monthly Repair & Advice Cafe. There will be FREE refreshments (and Mince Pies!) for you to enjoy, some festive music, and lovely like-minded people from across the community for you to meet.
You can just bring along your clothes and bags to be mended, but if you’d like to get an electrical item repaired, please email us (transition @ st-andrews.ac.uk) to book a slot to guarantee being seen. There will also be an opportunity to fix chipped ceramics… yourself! So bring along your chipped ceramics and we’ll show you how.
We will also be running another Linux session. 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 this year? 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 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!
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 ceramics, watches, clocks, 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. 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 reusingIT. 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.
SEE YOU IN 2026!
Thursday 29th January
Thursday 26th February
Friday 20th March
Thursday 23rd April
Thursday 21st May
