The Bakewell Tart Shop & Coffee House
18 Matlock Street, Bakewell, Derbyshire DE45 1EE
About
A cafe and shop on Matlock Street that calls itself the birthplace of the Bakewell Tart and sells both the tart and the pudding. Its heritage page is unusually frank about the history: it says the White Horse Inn was demolished in 1803 to make way for Rutland Square and the Rutland Arms, which makes an 1820 invention doubtful, and that a recipe for Bakewell pudding was already in print in the 1845 edition of Modern Cookery for Private Families. It says the building is where the puddings and tarts are believed to have first been baked commercially, and it refitted the cafe in June 2025 with the old booths brought back and a large wall map where visitors pin where they come from. The shop counter sells local pies, among them the homity pie and the Dales pasty, alongside the tarts. In June 2026 it launched the Shut's Challenge, named after the competitive eater Leah Shutkever: a whole party-size tart in 45 minutes.