Following a number of years of successful growth, Weymouth Repair Cafe is moving to a new, larger venue in Southill, Weymouth. This will allow the community organisation to undertake an ever-increasing number of repairs to items brought in by the public.
From September 13th, the Cafe will be located at the Southill Community Centre in Radipole Lane, DT3 9SS, opening for business from 10:00 am until 12:30 pm, every 2nd Saturday morning in the month.
It provides an opportunity for people to bring along items, including electrical and electronic devices, sewing repairs, binoculars, clocks, jewellery, leatherwork, tool sharpening, glueing, mechanical repairs, and sewing machines, where one of around twenty skilled volunteer repairers will assess and fix it where possible. This involves the public too, so that once a repair is complete, they will leave having learnt something new. Over the years, Weymouth Repair Cafe is proud to have fixed almost 3000 items.
Chairman Malcolm Smith said, “The move to Southill allows us to continue to grow as an organisation, meaning an even greater number of items can be saved from consignment to the bin !”
The new venue at Southill has extensive free parking in the shopping area car park next door. There is a drop-off point outside the centre where larger items can be left temporarily. There’s a friendly cafe area where visitors can have tea and cake whilst waiting their turn to have an item repaired. There is an opportunity to leave a small donation for the work, which goes to local charities, and to pay for any spares that may have been used. Sometimes items that are repairable but not on the day can be taken home for a repairer to complete the fix at home, with agreement.
The Repair Cafe movement began in the Netherlands back in 2009 and has gathered momentum ever since with the slogan “Don’t Bin It – Fix It “. It is now worldwide, and the Weymouth Cafe has been a big part of that in the UK. In March 2024, Weymouth was awarded the accolade of the UK “Community Group of the Year 2024” by the networking site “Nextdoor”,- the best Community Group in the whole of the UK. In July 2024, the cafe was awarded the gold award in the Community Award category at the Weymouth Business Awards.
They are always looking for more volunteers, and whilst special skills are not needed to be part of the Repair Cafe family, to become a repairer, then some sort of specialisation is required. Please contact us on repaircafeweymouth@gmail.co.uk if you would like some more information or come along to one of our events and introduce yourself. You can find us on www.repaircafeweymouth.org and on Facebook www.facebook.com/RepairCafeWeymouth.
