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!

Thanks @BeardySchnauzer. I think we will give it a go!

We saw it in Bayeux a few years ago. We were literally the only people in there. I don’t think the French are very interested in it.

Just found on the website that the display is at a height of 80cm, in case that helps anyone.

I was on holiday in Bayeux during Covid and they were obviously very careful with how many tickets they released. You couldn't book anything online - you had to turn up first thing in the morning in person and see if you could get a slot. We tried three times and didn't manage to see it. Now I've had to pay a fortune to see it in London. Luckily Bayeux and surrounding area are lovely so plenty else to do.

I went with my parents and we have seen it quite a few times in Bayeux

we all agreed being flat was an improvement and it was presented really well. We weren’t there that long (as we’ve seen it a lot!) but we could have taken our time

It is a brilliant experience for £13.50 with an Art Pass. No queue to enter around noon and then a slow shuffle with some interesting images to look until the actual exhibit is reached. A constant slow motion in single file meant we could finally see it all properly in about 45 minutes. Staff chivvied us to keep moving but cattle prods weren’t in evidence. Historic and definitely worth a little hanging about I felt.

Just to warn people who have timed tickets for late afternoon, you may not get to see the tapestry, even though you have tickets.

My 86 year old mum & dd had timed tickets for 3.50pm. Despite being there on time, they had to stand in a queue for 2 hours, then were allowed to see the tapestry for only 10 minutes before the lights were switched off. An attendant told them they were very lucky to have seen the tapestry, which they were because people with tickets for later than 3.50pm didn’t get to see it at all.

it seems that the attendants can’t hurry previous groups through the tapestry to ensure that time slots are kept. This is because everyone wants to view it from left to right so there is a very slow shuffle as people try to translate the Latin phrases and understand what is depicted. No-one ensures that the previous time slot holders leave at the end of their time slot. Therefore, as the day goes on, there is more and more of a backlog of ticket holders and much less chance of actually seeing it. It’s madness.

Why doesn’t the British Museum eject each group at the end of their time slot to allow the next group to access the tapestry at the correct time?

It seems that the time slots are too short, way too many tickets were sold and there is no effective system to manage the number of viewers each day. I find this strange.

Oh,it must have only just opened when I went with school, then. I don't think I realised thst at the time. Bayeux is our twin town, so all our French exchanges were there.

I've seen the Reading one a few times. I believe it doesn't have as high a penis count, but is otherwise pretty much the same.

I have tickets with a friend in November - I wasn't too bothered, but he is massively keen on this part of history, so I think it will be fun.

We had tickets for 11.10am last Sunday. There was a long queue at the Montague Place entrance but when I said to the staff at the front of the queue that we had timed tickets for the Bayeux Tapestry they said we should just go straight to the front and there was a different person checking bags. There were no signs saying that there were separate queues for general entrance and Tapestry tickets!

We got to the exhibition entrance at out ticket time but it was a further 35 minutes before we actually saw the Tapestry. There are some animations to watch while you wait and three or so objects in cases. Then there is a bit where you are on a balcony overlooking the Tapestry so you can see it from a height. Then we had 40 mins shuffling along right next to the Tapestry, the staff were telling everyone they had to keep moving constantly so we did feel quite rushed and could easily have spent double the time. But at least they were trying to get everyone through.

For people trying to get tickets when the next batch opens - I got in the queue on the website the second the tickets went on sale and I think I only waited less than an hour to buy them. It said I was something like 3,000th in the queue.

FFS we're going next Saturday at 6pm,there's no way I can queue that long. I'm getting stressful about in now.

I’m not sure it is purely the museums fault. 40 minutes should be long enough.

when we went it was quiet but there were two women inching their way along. We overtook them and when we got to the end we could see they’d only got about 5m down! Problem was people were bottle necking behind them. I’m not sure how the museum can chivvy people along but they should certainly encourage people to overtake!

That's not the experience we had last Saturday.

We had a 11.10am ticket and got in, waited a bit as they released only 6-8 people in a go and then you see a couple of animated information boards I really enjoyed.

You then see the tapestry from above and wait a bit as again they only let a certain amount of people in as you walk along the tapestry in a single line. They constantly tell you to walk along, yo there is no real time to linger and I did find it a bit pushy. We were out by around 12.15pm.

I would have loved more additional items on display so don't expect anything big, there is a cabinet at the beginning, 3 along the animated boards and 2 at the end.

The gift shop - nice but honestly it was so expensive. We looked it up online the day before and I already knew I wouldn't buy anything. I may have been tempered by some of the books but I think if I really want it I can always go back and get it later.

Maybe having an early ticket helped as there was no build-up of people.