Collectively reflecting on the act of repair
This exhibition in The Gallery Cafe by Breaks & Joins in partnership with St Margaret’s House builds on a small exhibition we created together in September 2025 in the Chapel to celebrate Second Hand September (Many Hands: Make Mending Matter). We shared photos of the people who come to our Repair Cafes - the stories of the hands that mend and the people who bring the things to be mended, alongside people's particular stories of what mending means to them. This year, we are taking that further and looking more closely at repair: of things, of people and of our communities.
What impact can we have by not buying new and finding ways to repair? We can prevent waste, but can we also create something more beautiful and a process that brings people together?
Through this exhibition we showcase the people who repair things, repair people and repair communities, as well as the spaces where people can come together or find peace in time alone, within a tranquil and restorative energy.
We have chosen to showcase people from the St Margaret’s House community who we are proud to have on our team, but they could just as easily be you and people you know. We are all capable of this work and are doing it in unseen ways every day.
This exhibition highlights the people who may normally shy away from the limelight, whose ongoing acts of repair may sometimes go unseen by a wider audience. Through their patience, their tenacity and their kindness, acts of repair create beauty in the world – the beauty of art, of connection and of recovery.
It feels like we are at a moment in our lives when there is a never-ending push to be productive and to keep buying: a moment when we rely on convenience, but where we are also being pushed to our limits. In contrast, making time to repair things, repair our communities and repair ourselves can feel like a radical act.
About Breaks & Joins:
Breaks & Joins explores the repair of our stuff, ourselves and our communities. We engage in creative conversations through workshops, interventions, events and training to make physical and digital artworks which celebrate and interrogate repair as a radical act.
Photos by Chuck Blue Lowry. Text by Sue Mayo.
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Contact: If you have any questions regarding this exhibition, please email programming@stmargaretshouse.org.uk
Venue: The Gallery Cafe at St Margaret’s House, 21 Old Ford Road, London, E2 9PL
Access: Step-free entry to The Gallery Cafe is at the rear, through the garden. It is accessible through the gate located two doors to the left of the cafe’s main entrance. If you require access to an accessible toilet, please get in touch with us on 020 8980 2092 or email programming@stmargaretshouse.org.uk so we can arrange this for you.
Dates and Times: Wednesday 2nd September - Sunday 4th October, 8.30am-4pm (please note, The Gallery Cafe is not open on Mondays from 7 September onwards)
(Join us for the Opening Event on Thursday 3rd September, 6-8pm)