Anyone been to the British museum recently ? Are the queues to get in that bad ?

[Alfreddoeblin]

Read a few reviews on trip advisor that the queues to get in are horrendous because of an abysmally illogical new ticketing system. Even if you get tickets for a set time you’re basically stuck in a queue with everyone else, some of whom don’t have tickets. And folk who’d booked for the Roman exhibition didn’t get priority entry and were actually late. There’s talk of queues snaking round the block such are the numbers.
We were considering doing one of the 90 min tours (£12 each or thereabouts) and just wondering if we were able to skip the queue or would we be in a similar
position ? Behaviour in the museum was reportedly bad too along with humongous crowds. Starting wonder whether it’s worth it.

It's the bag checking that is taking time, but yeah my DH went on a Friday a couple of weeks ago and had to queue for about 30 mins to get in. He had timed tickets for the Roman exhibition and they were a bit late- staff didn't care about that.

He didn't say people were inconsiderate but there were a lot of people, fewer tickets per time slot would have made it more enjoyable. Also it was too busy to get any food or drink (long long queues) so bear that in mind too!

DH and I went last week on a week day. Looked at the queues which were long and decided to come back after lunch and figuring out the ticketing system

There were loads of tickets for every time slot on line, I just booked the next slot after leaving the restaurant.

No queue when we arrived, cocked up retrieving the ticket on my phone and just got waved through.

Certainly no crowds in the bit we went to - I suspect it depends where you go, the Egyptian gallery is usually rammed.

I suspect the main thing is to get a ticket and then make sure you are in the right queue - at the front gate.

We went during the Easter holidays and booked a ticket but it was a wet day and it was ridiculously busy and hot inside - too busy to really see any of the exhibits, we were all shuffling along together. I won’t be going back unless it is out of school holidays in the hope it is better. DD found it less engaging than the Natural History Museum and we do brave there in the holidays.

Oh and we were about two hours late for our time slot and it was fine (our fault)

We’re going around 10th June so no school hols (I think).

We went a couple of weeks ago to see the Roman exhibition and the queues were round the block. We’re members so could walk straight in, but we would have walked away if we weren’t tbh - I’ve never seen it like that before.

I’m a member too, but they say you still have to queue ‘round the block’, it’s only when you get to the gates that you get into the members queue. Just don’t bring a bag as this causes further delay. Photo shows the queue at 12:30 on Sunday (summer 2024)

We had timed tickets for exhibitions and went straight in.

We did but we would have had to join the ridiculously long queue if I hadn’t bothered to ask the security staff who noticed we had no bags. There’s no publicity as to which queue to join.

We went a Sunday in April. 30 min queue.
We booked tickets but didn't show them. What's the point?

The queues were sometimes appalling, but we went on the last Friday evening of the Legion exhibition at half past six and got pretty much straight in. The exhibition itself was really crowded, but the museum was fine.