Where you can take your electricals, clothes and other broken items to be repaired free of charge

-Credit: (Image: UWE Bristol)
-Credit: (Image: UWE Bristol)


UWE Bristol is relaunching its Repair Café, which fixes items brought in by staff, students and members of the public for free after proving to be popular last year. On October 9, people will be able to bring along broken items to the Frenchay Campus to have them mended by experts at the School of Engineering.

The UWE Bristol Repair Café was first launched in 2023 and will return for the new academic year. Every second Wednesday of the month between 12.15pm and 1.45pm, people will be able to get their electronics, music equipment, toys and clothes evaluated and (hopefully) fixed by local volunteers, former engineers, specialists and students at no cost.

Although not everything can be repaired, the team have a success rate of 67 per cent. If these items had not been brought to the repair cafe, they would have likely ended up in landfill.

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UWE Bristol has a renowned electrical engineering department
UWE Bristol has a renowned electrical engineering department -Credit:UWE Bristol

Organisers Kat Corbett and Laura Fogg-Rogers both work with Bristol repair cafes in Eastville and Winterbourne. They decided to bring the concept to UWE Bristol and received funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

"There's also the social side of it, students have found new groups," said Laura. "A lot of it is textiles and sewing too, one of our students studies aerospace engineering and she has become an expert in sewing and clothes."

Staff at other repair cafes, STEM ambassadors and former engineers all volunteer their time to help at the repair café. Laura hopes that some students who worked in the café last year will now train up the new students joining the project.

"It's intergenerational: those repair skills continue, and older people have loved passing on those skills. That wholesomeness of seeing younger people working with older people, it gives you a warm glow," said Laura.

Laura added: "It's important for us to connect with the local community, and also to make sure that items stay in use because it really reduces the carbon footprint.

"We've had lots of electricals because we have an amazing electrical engineering department, but also amps, hairdryers and stereos. We have had lots of clothes and shoes that just need fixing and alterations.

"We had an heirloom cot with a catch missing, and we actually managed to 3D-print a new catch. That cot can now be used for a new generation of babies."

Laura described the diversity of students involved in the repair café. Fifteen per cent of the people studying engineering at UWE Bristol are women, but 39 per cent of the repair café is female.

Laura researches sustainability and diversity in engineering. She is proud that 77 per cent of those working at the repair café are from BAME backgrounds.

As well as being somewhere for people to bring their broken items and have them repaired, Laura described how Kat had made the café a social space which helped to tackle loneliness. One elderly couple visit every month, and they bring their lunch and chat to everyone.

For anyone planning to travel by car, email engineeringourfuture@uwe.ac.uk to request access to car parking on site.

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