Hart’s Bakery celebrates five years at Temple Meads with month of special events

Five years of Hart’s Bakery being located at Bristol Temple Meads is being celebrated in style during December with a series of special events.

Each Saturday from 9am to 2pm within Arch 35 will see a different small group of carefully selected independent traders selling their wares:

December 2
Billings & Briggs – natural and biodynamic wines
Lily Violet May – wreaths, flowers and festive foliage
Martha Anne Illustration – beautiful and quirky illustrations

December 9
Larch – jewellery using silver, brass and copper made by Iulia, Hart’s Bakery’s longest-serving member of staff
Peak – cyclists hats from Fiona McKail, a baker at Hart’s
Bristol Jam Plan – delicious preserves from surplus food for a good cause

December 16
Trouble(d) Makers – Will Ireland and Tessa Edmondson with their pottery, wooden gifts and jewellery
Dreamy Ox – curious creations from set designer and model maker Max Dorey

December 23
Loof Terrariums – stylish terrariums made in Bristol
Loop Massage – essential oils, soaps and candles

Friday, December 8 is the official fifth birthday of Hart’s at Temple Meads, with acclaimed photographer Martin Parr taking a photograph of the current team and some very special specials on the menu.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BanqraclFXB

Laura Hart started her bakery business from her own kitchen at home in Bishopston. The former in-house baker at The Lido, Bordeaux Quay and Arch House Deli sold her first custard tarts and Eccles cakes from the back of a bicycle before moving to premises on Hampton Lane between Cotham Hill and Whiteladies Road, and later spending more than a year hunting for a new location.

A couple of years after moving to Lower Approach Road, Laura’s husband Pete Young (pictured with Laura, top) quit his job as an engineer at Dyson to work for the growing business full-time, having been a mainstay behind the scenes since before day one.

In the five years that Hart’s Bakery has been at Temple Meads, much has changed in the surrounding area, and more changes are currently afoot.

A peak into the formerly derelict arch next door to Hart’s Bakery reveals work underway to transform it into a new space made up of an office for Laura and Pete, storage, and a much-needed area where the hardworking staff can take a well-earned break.

There will not be any huge changes immediately, but Laura and Pete promise that the flow of both customers and goods will be much improved, with queuing at busy times hopefully reduced.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbwNJlxlZsR

“We’re still going to be predominantly a bakery with a cafe attached,” says Laura, slowly returning to work at the bakery after giving birth to her and Pete’s first daughter, Lilly, just over a year ago.

When Casamia chef-patron Peter Sanchez-Iglesias had to choose one place in the city to meet Bristol24/7 for breakfast recently, he chose Hart’s Bakery, describing it as “at the centre of Bristol’s food scene”.

Hart’s Bakery joined two of Peter’s other restaurants, Pi Shop and Paco Tapas, as new entrants in The Good Food 2018, and shows no sign of resting on its laurels anytime soon.

Laura Hart and her husband Pete, who quit his job as an engineer at Dyson to work at the bakery

Read more: Seven new Bristol entries in Good Food Guide 2018