Cranleigh Repair Café has recently celebrated its second birthday, and what a journey it has been. From a first session in July 2024, when the team inspected just 10 items, the café now looks at around 100 items every month.
By Caroline Hayes
Two years of mending
As well as increasing the number of repairs, the café has widened its range of skills, welcoming a clock repairer and a leather repairer. In January 2025 the team was also joined by the ‘Make Do and Mend Team’, who undertake all the clothing and household textile repairs. The range of items collected for recycling has expanded too, now including empty blister packs, used coffee pods, old pens, felt tips and used printer cartridges.
Since opening, the café has looked at 1,537 items, with a success rate of 75.4%. The most regular arrivals are vacuum cleaners, lamps and clocks, but the volunteers also repair very sentimental items, and these are a source of joy. Teddy bears are a regular feature, and it is wonderful to see them transformed with a bit of ‘TLC’ from Dot, the ‘Make Do and Mend’ volunteer. The team also sees a lot of broken ceramics.
Some are in so many pieces you’d think them irreparable, but our ceramic repairer Chris is a genius and carefully manages to piece them back together.
Topping the league for repairs
Many repair cafés across the world, including Cranleigh, record the data from their sessions onto a database called Repair Monitor. The team enters the type of item, the make, model and information about what is wrong, including whether a repair is possible. This information is used by Repair Café International to lobby manufacturers, with the aim of household items being made more robust and repairable so they fit into the circular economy.
The café has every reason to be proud. In 2025, Cranleigh Repair Café was top of the league table for UK repair cafés contributing to the Repair Monitor, and fourth in the world. So far in 2026, the team is maintaining its position as top in the UK and is currently 2nd in the world. Not all repair cafés contribute to the Repair Monitor, but to be top of those that do in the UK is incredible.
Why some things can’t be fixed
Where the team can’t repair items, it is usually because they were glued together during the manufacturing process and so were never intended to be opened and repaired, or because spare parts are not available. The café believes strongly in the importance of changes to the manufacturing process, and in the availability of spare parts.
Volunteer Mark went to a repair event at the House of Commons in March, which encouraged MPs to sign the Repair and Reuse Declaration. The Declaration calls on UK legislators and decision-makers to introduce measures to make repair easier and more affordable: to introduce a repair index to help the public choose more repairable and durable products, to save reusable products from being wasted, and to support a new generation of repairers through repair training, accreditation and apprenticeships. If you would like to find out more, visit therestartproject.org/campaigns/repair-reuse-declaration.
A team built on camaraderie
The café has a wonderful team and a great camaraderie between all the volunteers. As well as the repairers and the ‘Make Do and Mend’ team, there are many volunteers who assist with refreshments and paperwork, organise the recycling and meet and greet the visitors.
The team meets at the Bandroom in Village Way on the first Saturday morning of each month, from 9:30am to 12:30pm. Sessions are usually fully booked, so if you would like an item repaired it is always best to book in advance by sending an email to [email protected]. Repairs are free unless a part is required, but donations for the future running of the repair café are always welcome.
This article first appeared in the July 2026 issue of Cranleigh Magazine. Pick up your free copy around the village, or read more at cranleighmagazine.co.uk.
