Our next repair cafe is on the 11th of December, 2025, at the David Russell Apartments. Please see more information on our Repair Cafe event post.

We are looking forward to offering FREE sewing and electrical repairs at this month’s cafe! Just stop by with your clothes or bags, but if you’d like to get an electrical or wooden item repaired, please email us first to book a slot to guarantee being seen.

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. It 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 (we have additional bike repair at our weekly Bike Pool events) 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.

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. This also varies from one month to the next.

There will be small free refreshments, books/magazines to browse and lots of lovely people to chat to. Each month the Cafe rotates locations so it’s 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, David Russell Apartments, the Eco Hub Refill Shop, The Scottish Oceans Institute and Walter Bower House.

Please look at our Events Page to see upcoming Repair Cafes.

  • “I now see the world differently.”

    “I fell into my volunteering role with the Transition Repair Cafe after being welcomed in by the magnetic personalities that run the organization – and I am so glad I did! I had never been to a repair cafe before, but the openness of the people working within Transition made me feel right at home, right away. While contributing my own skills to the repair efforts, I was able to work alongside so many talented craftspeople who opened my eyes to the many things in my home that it would not have even occurred to me to repair – yet every evening people would go home with vacuums, cradles, ski pants, and speakers working like new. Because of working with Transition, I now see the world differently, being far more conscious of fixing first. My experience has also inspired me to join other repair efforts, even after leaving St Andrews, making this experience truly a lesson in sustained lifestyle change!”
    Jennifer Miller
    Masters Student, University of St Andrews