Share & Repair

FAQ's

A Repair Café is a place where you can bring your broken things and a group of skilled volunteers will try to mend them for a donation. It’s a community endeavour where the emphasis is on preventing mendable things from ending up in landfill.  Refreshments are usually available at each café.

You can bring along electrical appliances, clothing, furniture, housewares, toys, etc. Anything that’s broken (and which you can manage to carry on your own to the Repair Café) is welcome!

Our volunteers can advise if you need a special part. When this is the case, we ask you to source the part directly and bring it along to the next Repair Café where our volunteers will use it to try and mend the item.

Our sewing specialists can replace zips but you will need to source and bring along the right length zip. We also ask that you remove the broken zip in advance. You can buy zips online or try Timpsons, Guildhall Market, Mark Pickles Sewing Studio, or even Hobbycraft.

No, there’s no need to bring tools. Our volunteers use their own (much-loved) tools.

Visiting a Repair Café is free of charge, but voluntary pay-what-you-can donations are expected. Your donations help us continue to offer our services to the community. In each Repair Café, a collection box is available for donations if you’d like to make one. Or, you can make a donation online.

Share and Repair is a not for profit charity. Donations are used to cover some of the costs involved in running Repair Cafés. These include hall hire, insurance, resources such as glues, batteries and fuses and publicity.

Share and Repair’s funding comes from a mixture of donations and grants.
Donations by visitors to the Repair Cafés are used to cover the costs of hall hire, insurance, materials and an annual volunteer celebration. Library of Things membership fees and loan fees cover the cost of maintaining the items.
Grants enable us to grow the charity and buy capital items such as PAT Testers (to check electrical items are safe to use), publicity and marketing materials .

A Library of Things is a place where you can borrow items – ‘Things’ – that you might need to use just now and again, or to try something before you buy.
By using the Bath Library of Things, you can reduce the environmental impact of purchasing and owning items, as well as save money and space in your home. We now have over 700 items you can borrow, from power tools to camping equipment, cake tins, Champagne flutes and everything in between!

Everything and anything! We have more than 700 items in stock across five categories and are always adding more things:
DIY
Garden
Home
Camping & Outdoors
Parties & Events
Our items include power tools for tricky DIY projects to specialist equipment for cleaning the home or having a party.
Search for an item on the online catalogue here.

The majority of our items have been donated by people in and around Bath. About 5% of all our items are bought new. In particular, cordless power tools and tents.  People also lend us items to lend out to other people, especially if storage space at home is limited. They retain ownership of their item and can use it whenever they need to.

Borrowing costs vary depending on the item (starting from £1 a week) and the type of Membership you choose. Our Membership options are:
Pay As You Go Free Membership. No discounts on loans.
Best Friend: £20 for annual Membership. 25% discount off every loan.
Proud Supporter: £50 for annual Membership. No loan fees. Best value Membership for frequent borrowers.
Super Supporter: £80 for annual Membership. No loan fees. This Membership allows us to donate memberships to local charities for those in need.
Student: Free membership for Students plus 25% off every loan (valid NUS card needed)
Charity: Free membership for local charities plus 25% off every loan (valid charity number needed)

Please bring two forms of ID when you come to collect your item: one with proof of address and one with a photograph. For students, please bring a valid NUS card. For charities, please let us know your Registered Charity Number.

You will find the Library of Things at the Share and Repair Shop, 3 York Buildings, George Street Bath BA1 2EB.

Tuesday 10am-1pm
Wednesday 10am-1pm
Thursday 1pm-4pm
Friday 10am-1pm
Saturday 10am-1pm
(closed on Sunday and Monday)

Yes! Our cargo bike can carry most of the items in the Library of Things. You can book our bike delivery and collection service when reserving your item online – for a £5 for a return journey we can transport most items within 3 miles of the shop in Bath.

George Street is a busy road with limited places to stop. The nearest car parks are Cattle Market Car Park and Broad Street Car Park. There is also a loading bay outside the entrance to the Travelodge on our side of the road on George Street.
We have a wheelbarrow or trolleys in the shop to take items to and from your car if needed!
We also encourage you to liaise with us about our bike delivery and collection service – for a £5 return journey fee we can transport most items within 3 miles of the shop in Bath.

See this map for parking locations. Parking in the loading bays is at your own risk. 

Please check our Wishlist for both the Library and HomeKIT of items or email hello@shareandrepair.org.uk with a picture and description of your item. Please check we can take your item before bringing it to the shop.

Our popular HOW TO Workshops are run regularly by our friendly, expert volunteers.  Please see each particular Workshop for more information. HOW TO Workshops are run on a suggested donation of £10 per person. 

HomeKIT is an initiative that provides small electrical items to low-income households. We revive and rehome pre-loved household items for the benefit of those in need. We work with a network of charity partners to deliver the programme.

Please check the latest list of items wanted or email Homekit@shareandrepair.org.uk with a picture and/or description of your item. Please do not drop items at the shop without getting in touch first. Thank you. Please check our Wishlist here

On any of our activity please email us at hello@shareandrepair.org.uk

Our Safeguarding Policy