Hornsey Street pedestrian drop-off area
Local MP Bambos Charalambous showed off his repair skills (and tucked into some well-deserved cake!) when he joined the birthday celebrations at the Bowes and Bounds Repair Café last Sunday.
International Repair Day is on 19 October and throughout the month London repair groups are celebrating 15 years of repair cafes around the world. Local outfit Bowes and Bounds Repair Café hosted their birthday bash at their last monthly meeting on 6 October. Mr Charalambous was joined by Haringey Councillor Mike Hakata, with both getting the chance to have a go at repairing an item to save it from going to waste. At the event, Mr Charalambous also reconfirmed his commitment to the Repair and Reuse Declaration, which he signed in parliament this May.
L-R: MP Bambos Charalambous, cafe organiser Fiona Dear and Councillor Mike Hakata.
The Bowes and Bounds Repair Café has been operating for six months as part of the beloved Myddleton Road Market. On the first Sunday of each month, the team sets up shop in Shaftesbury Hall from 2-5pm. The café is open to anyone who wants to bring in a household item to repair, whether it’s furniture, clothing or electricals. The team of volunteers offer support and advice to help teach repair skills and breathe new life into otherwise wasted items. The café has been a great success in the local community since receiving start-up funding from the North London Waste Authority in the form of the North London Community Fund, aimed at supporting community initiatives that prevent waste.
In the five months Bowes and Bounds has been running, they estimate they have repaired 48 items, avoiding 180 kg of waste, and saving over 600kg of CO2. It’s an impressive effort from a team run entirely by volunteers. New volunteers are always welcomed, whether it’s to help with fixing, organising or promotion - anyone interested in helping out can e-mail hello@bowesboundsrepaircafe.org.
The 6 October meeting was an extra special occasion for the honoured guests (complete with a repair-themed birthday cake) in honour of International Repair Day. International Repair Day celebrates the power of community repair to prevent waste and learn skills together. Last Repair Day, over 1,300 waste busting events happened across the globe, including 106 in the UK. This year will be even better, featuring a 15th birthday celebration of Repair Cafe International, an open-air repair cafe in the Grand Place in Brussels, a webinar by Right to Repair Europe, and repair training courses for refugees in Uganda. In the UK alone, there are more than 500 repair cafes.
Fiona, Co-Director at The Restart Project and organiser of Bowes and Bounds says: “Most people don’t like throwing away usable things, and we’ve loved seeing how determined people are to fix their things at the repair cafe. We’re asking MPs to sign their support for the UK Repair and Reuse Declaration this Repair Day, because Government policies can make repair easier, cheaper and more accessible for everyone”
The 6 October celebrations went off with a bang, but that’s not the only event on offer. The café runs on the first Sunday of each month and is open to all. Come along with an item to repair from 2-5pm at Shaftesbury Hall, Bowes Park.
