‘Positive, hopeful, lovely places’: how Britain’s repair shops are cutting waste and giving devices a new lease of life

The Fixing Factory in Camden, north London. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

There is a pause in the hubbub of conversation in the workshop and everyone watches as a young man plugs in the vacuum cleaner that just minutes earlier had been in several pieces on his workbench.

As the machine whirs into life, the people in the room break out into muted cheers and clapping. There are smiles all round.