Pudding or tart: Bakewell's three shops and what each one claims

Ask for a Bakewell tart in Bakewell and you will get one, iced, with a cherry on top if you like. But the thing the town is named for in the food books is the pudding, and it is a different animal. The pudding is a puff pastry case, a layer of strawberry jam and a soft filling of eggs, sugar and almonds that sets somewhere between a custard and a sponge. The tart is shortcrust pastry, jam and an almond sponge, and it is the one that usually gets the icing. Bloomers puts the difference plainly on its own site: the tart is more cake-like and not nearly as sweet as the pudding. The Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop says the tart was developed later, as a variant of the pudding, in the 20th century.

Three shops in the middle of town sell the pudding. Each tells the story a little differently, and each says its own is the real thing. This guide sets out what each one claims, in its own words where we can, and leaves the deciding to you.

The story everyone agrees on, roughly

All three shops start in the same place. A cook at the White Horse, the inn where Rutland Square is now, was told to make a tart and got it wrong: instead of stirring the egg and almond mixture into the pastry, she spread it over a layer of jam. The guests liked it, the inn kept making it, and the mistake became the Bakewell pudding. The landlady is named on Bloomers' site as Mrs Ann Greaves.

The dates are where it comes apart. The Old Original puts the invention around 1860. The Rutland Arms, the hotel that now stands on the Square, also gives around 1860 and calls itself the birthplace of the pudding. The Bakewell Tart Shop, to its credit, picks holes in all of this on its own heritage page: it says the White Horse was demolished in 1803 to make way for Rutland Square and the Rutland Arms, so an invention there in 1820 is doubtful, and that a recipe for Bakewell pudding was already printed in the 1845 edition of Modern Cookery for Private Families, which makes 1860 unlikely too. Bloomers says it is still researching the truth. We are not going to settle it here.

The Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop

The green-fronted shop on the Square, in a building it dates to the late 17th century. Its history page says that around 1860 Mrs Wilson, wife of the town's tallow chandler, heard about the new pudding at the White Horse, acquired the original recipe and started making puddings to sell, and that its puddings are still made by hand to that secret recipe. Its restaurant page says puddings have been sold from the building since 1860, and its pudding-and-tart page calls its puddings the only original handmade Bakewell puddings.

Downstairs is a bakery counter and a gift shop; upstairs, reached only by stairs, is a beamed restaurant where the pudding comes hot with custard or cream. The restaurant does not serve gluten-free puddings or tarts, though the shop sells gluten-free tarts. Restaurant tables are booked by phone on 01629 812193 and walk-ins are taken. The restaurant opens 9am to 5pm daily and the shop from 8.30am, 9am on Sundays, until 6pm.

Bloomers of Bakewell

A craft bakery on Water Lane, a few steps from the Square, in a stone building its site dates to the 1600s. Bloomers sells what it calls the Bloomers Original Bakewell Pudding and dates it to 1889. Its About page says the bakery was founded on Matlock Street at the beginning of the 20th century, run by the Bloomer family for most of the 1900s, moved to Water Lane almost 25 years ago and was sold in the early 1990s to Marion Wright and Jeff Cooper, who ran it for over 20 years. It recommends a history of the pudding by Paul Hudson, whom it describes as Mrs Greaves's great-great-great-grandson, on sale in the shop, and says that by choosing Bloomers you will know you are eating the truly original version. It suggests eating the pudding warm with ice cream. Bloomers also sells pies, pasties and local groceries, and posts puddings out by mail order. Its site lists no opening hours, so check before you make a special trip.

The Bakewell Tart Shop and Coffee House

On Matlock Street, a cafe and shop that calls itself the birthplace of the Bakewell tart and says the building is where the puddings and tarts are believed to have first been baked commercially, with photographs from the 1920s of customers eating them in its courtyard. It refitted the cafe in June 2025 and brought the old booths back. It is the most even-handed of the three about the pudding's history, and it will sell you a pudding as well as a tart: its advice is a tart if you want something cold and a pudding if you want it hot. The counter also sells local pies such as the homity pie and the Dales pasty. It opens 9am or 9.30am to 4.30pm, until 5pm on Saturdays. If you are hungry, the Shut's Challenge, launched on National Bakewell Tart Day in June 2026, is a whole party tart in 45 minutes for £50, refunded if you finish.

How to do it

The three shops are within a couple of minutes' walk of each other, so the obvious thing is to buy from all three and compare. The puddings travel: all three sell them by post. If you want one hot, sit down upstairs at the Old Original. If you want a tart with icing and a cherry, the Tart Shop sells it whole or by the slice. Time it right: the Old Original's restaurant stops at 5pm, an hour before its shop downstairs.