Bayeux Tapestry - advice for those with tickets

[TheCompactPussycat]

I took the family to see the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum today. It was spectacular and absolutely worth going to see.

However, be prepared for the queues! The experience is supposed to be 40 minutes but don't naively think that your timed ticket means your 40 minutes starts at that time. It took half an hour of queuing after being admitted into the exhibition to actually get to the start and a further 20 minutes before we got a glimpse of the tapestry (and only then because we pushed to the front of the queue past 40 other people - apologies if that was you!).

Hopefully just teething issues at the start of such a major exhibition but I would have preferred to enjoy the tapestry without constantly looking at my watch for fear of missing our coach home.

Allow at least 2 and a half hours inside just for the Bayeux exhibition so you're not stressing!

But it was amazing!

Haven’t there been issues with people taking too long? If that carries on, they’ll probably start moving people along so you won’t be able to stay that long I don’t know for sure.

do you mean you were looking at it for 2 1/2 hours?

Hmm, so when was it that they looked at your ticket and checked the time? At the start of this story so e.g. if you had a ticket for 3pm you turned up at 3pm and then it was 4pm before you started to see the tapestry? Did you happen to notice what happened to anyone who turned up with a ticket for later than the current time (e.g. turning up to queue at 3pm with a ticket for 3:30pm)? When I've been before they've actually been quite relaxed about time slots, but I don't think I've ever been to anything as busy as this.

(Thank you for posting - I do have a ticket plus plans for afterwards and it's good to get a chance to think this through!)

I did think 40 mins seemed tight so I’m not surprised people are spending longer

I am guessing OP's 2.5 hours is something like the 1hr she actually queued + the 20mins she saved by pushing past people so she'd be able to see it at all + the 40 mins she spent looking at it + half an hour for peace of mind?

I’m surprised you were able to push to the front without causing a minor riot. Did nobody challenge you?

God, how do I get tickets? Last time I ended up being 1600 in the queue.

No, we were actually looking at it for 20 minutes. Our ticket was 2.40, we started to see the actual tapestry at 3.35. No time for the gift shop which might have been nice.

I asked the couple at the front of the queue if they minded us going in front of them and they were happy. I didn't ask the rest of the queue! I do feel a bit bad. It's not normally something I do!

I bought them on the first release but they're releasing more soon.

I just left the queue thing running on my phone and got on with my day untilIgoton thesite to book. It did take 6 hours!!

We are going next weekend. Can’t wait!

Yes, Oct 21st. Will wfh that day and leave phone running and draft DH in too. Thanks!

I’m pretty sure we took a couple of hours when I saw it in France, audio tour was excellent. Not sure why everyone is desperate to see it in London where it’s costing 3 times as much. Bayeaux is easy to visit by ferry once it returns to France

I’ve seen it many times in Bayeux and feel quite sentimentally attached to it! I’m looking forward to seeing it stretched out lying flat rather than bent round a room

They’re releasing more soon,

check the website, out the date in your diary and be prepared to spend all day waiting for them

My elderly mother who refuses to travel by ferry or plane wants to see it. Too old to travel to France but thinks she can manage London

The Times interactive guide to it is pretty good - I think the pressure to keep moving means I'll try to be as familiar as possible with it before going and know if there are things I definitely want to notice. There's also a near-replica in Reading apparently (but I won't be able to go there before I see the real thing).

www.thetimes.com/culture/art/article/bayeux-tapestry-commentary-british-museum-dqh83qqmt

I’m missing why you went to the front of the queue?

Sounds like because they had a coach to catch.

Is there an Audio guide?

we saw it in France (so I’m not joining the bun fight to see it here) and the audio guide was both excellent, and kept you moving. Everyone was pretty much moving at the pace of the audio guide. It wasn’t crowded there at all, and was super well managed.

Crikey, I think I'm glad I went to see it in Bayeux. It was quite cool but not something I would have fancied queuing for hours on end for. And I liked having lots of time to pop back and forth to different bits instead of it being like the crown jewels.

Do you have a share token for that Times link @whatHappensWhenMNRunsOutOfNNs ?

I saw it in situ too, didn't feel hurried apart from the fact I had a bit of a bored toddler in a pushchair at the time.

Forget it altogether and go and see the Hastings one for free! I went today - beautiful piece of work made in 1966 for the 900th anniversary of the Battle.

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/arts-culture/year-normans/hastings-embroidery/

Yeah. Our tickets were for 14.40. Had we stayed in the queue, I reckon we'd have not finished until at least 16.20. A bit of time to look at the couple of other exhibits in with the tapestry and some time in the gift shop, plus leeway for peace of mind.

Exactly that.

My mistake for thinking we'd be through sooner. I couldn't get signal either so couldn't see whether there was space on a later coach to switch to.