Repair Café visit reveals a warm community restoring broken items

A visit to the Repair Café at Cascades described volunteers from charity Share Portsmouth helping people repair items, offering tea and cakes, and encouraging hands-on learning to extend the life of goods.

I visited a Repair Café pop-up to see how local volunteers help mend household items and reduce waste. The initiative began in 2018 as a monthly pop-up and has since grown into the charity Share Portsmouth, which runs a unit in Cascades and other pop-ups around the city. During the visit I met Clive Good, a volunteer and trustee, who assessed my record player and explained the fault. Volunteers involve visitors in repairs, and the sessions are accompanied by tea, coffee and cake. Reported details: - The Repair Café started in 2018 and expanded into Share Portsmouth, a charity that operates the Cascades unit and pop-up sessions across the city. - The visit took place at a Cosham Community Centre pop-up where volunteer trustee Clive Good assessed the author’s record player. - Volunteers explain faults, encourage people to help with repairs when possible, and celebrate successful fixes; refreshments are provided and donations are requested to support the service. - The author’s record player required a replacement part and could not be fixed on the day; the author plans to return with the part for a follow-up repair. - Share Portsmouth also runs the Portsmouth Library of Things at Cascades, where people can borrow a range of items from tools to musical instruments. Summary: The Repair Café provides practical, volunteer-led help that combines repair skills with a social atmosphere and aims to reduce unnecessary replacement of items. The service is volunteer-run, funded by donations, and connected with the Portsmouth Library of Things; the author intends to return once they have the needed part and the charity continues to run appointments and pop-ups.