MEET OUR REPAIRers: Anthony Johnston
11/01/2025
By Katie Schuster
In a world where perfectly good items are discarded daily, our Repair Café heroes step in to give cherished possessions a second chance at life. Meet our talented team of volunteer fixers who share their expertise and passion to keep everything from beloved family heirlooms to everyday electronics out of landfills. Through their dedication and skill, these community champions help reduce waste while teaching others the joy of repair.
Talented repairer, Anthony Johnson, a retired Design Technology and ICT teacher now enjoys doing ‘odd jobs’ for people in his spare time. Here, he tells us more about himself and why he enjoys helping support his local community.
TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF.
I’m Anthony, 59, and have been a local resident for the last 18 years. I’ve always enjoyed fixing things, having had practical skills and being a hands-on learner all my life. Even as a child, I enjoyed taking my toys apart to see how they worked! Later, this interest developed into building kit cars, domestic DIY, etc, and latterly includes my interest in more sustainable living. The majority of my learning has come from a ‘having a go’ approach. In more recent years, this has been enhanced, on occasion, by tips from online platforms such as YouTube.
TELL US ABOUT THE KIND OF REPAIRS YOU DO!
Since the Repair Café started in Haslemere, I’ve fixed a vast range of items from toasters, coffee machines, pressure washers, mowers, and vacuum cleaners to vases, lamps and toys…and more.
Whilst most items brought into us are quickly identified as possibly repairable, the odd item is unfortunately just not feasible to fix. In other words, they have truly reached the end of their life. Nonetheless, I’ll have a good go at most things! Having said that, electronic faults are not my area of expertise. So, I’ll pass such items to repairers who have specific skills and experience with electronics.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BEING A REPAIR CAFÉ REPAIRER?
Putting items back into working use is a hugely satisfying process, especially if just a small issue has made a product unusable. I also believe it is important we are also preventing perfectly good items from reaching rubbish bins for another few years. In addition, when the odd item comes with a special story or an emotional attachment, I thoroughly enjoy being able to make someone’s day by returning a renovated and working product (like in BBC’s Repair Shop programme). The smiles are priceless.
What is your favourite repair?
A memorable repair was a fan heater - as it turned out, a repair of sorts but not your traditional repair!
In brief, the thermostat had been set too high which was preventing it from coming on. So this transpired to be an all but five second ‘repair’!