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!

Exactly. I’ve seen it 3 times in France, once as a kid and twice as an adult (once with audio). No need for me to see it again! Plus really it belongs to us English 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 not the French! 🇫🇷

We’ve got this fold-out guide which is rather good. It folds out concertina-style to show you the entire tapestry, complete with translations. It is currently sold out on the British Museum’s own website but available online from various sources.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-bayeux-tapestry-fold-out-edition/the-british-museum//9780714123561?sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=626889&awc=3787_1789733620_d7edb507a717aa90de6199cb2c5cbfb4&utm_source=626889&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=adstrong#reviews

I'll definitely take my stick and I'm not shy about asking to move to a seated area.

I was at the Escher the week it finished with my nephew and my god! The crowds and queuing were horrendous! It was nothing like as bad when it was at Dulwich picture galley pre covid but still very busy there.

What's the cafe/ restaurant like ,anyone know? I'm going with DS and if we're queueing for ages he will need to be fed or he'll get grumpy.

I have got one, but no enough space to unfold it

Cafe at the BM isn't great but the original pizza express is round the corner so maybe bribe him with a trip there?

Good, but it’ll be rammed. I will be taking sandwiches for my DS.

theres loads of places to eat around there if you have a look online first. The cafe isn’t great tbh. But also agree some snacks may be wise!!

it sounds like if you have early tickets it’s ok but it build up after lunch

It’s not a shit show whatsoever 🙄 it’s super well organised. they do not let you in the exhibition space until less than 10 mins before your ticket. They check your membership card if you are a member. Then you are in the first holding space with some photographs of the battlefield while they gather the group of your timed ticket. Then you go through and up to the pre exhibition which is a slow shuffle for 30-40 mins while the context and key personalities are on visuals as you shuffle past. The last 10 mins you are queuing by an upper window and you can see the tapestry and people viewing it below. Eventually you move down the stairs and then into the space yourself. They apologise beforehand that they will keep telling you to move on and move forward. I bought the Times a few weeks ago with a free guide so flicked through that with my younger one and the older one had studied the conquest in detail so had lots to add. We really enjoyed it.

Btw we had evening tickets so went in via Montague place - no queues at all - the rest of the museum was closed. The great court cafe is Benugo and is absolutely fine but isn’t open outside normal museum hours.

Goodness, this is the British Museum you know. There was probably some sub-audible tutting.

I have been a member of the BM in the past and was going to rejoin, but I found out that members only get 2 entries. In the past, you could go in as many times as you liked. So I haven't rejoined.

The border with the names of all the ladies that stitched it is my favourite bit about the Reading replica 🙂

The demand for this is far beyond anything they’ve exhibited before. If members keep go several times there will be members of the public who inevitably miss out. I think they’ve tried to strike a balance and it seems to me to be a fair one. But then I’ve been a member for years and think membership (for those in or nearby London at least) is well worth having.

Our tickets are 6.15 😭

This gives me hope!!

We were there on Sunday and they were announcing that if you wanted to skip the first bit - the projections and a few cases - to the stairs you go down to the tapestry case, you could. We are going again in a couple of weeks so will probably skip that bit then. It doesn't get you longer with the tapestry.

we had one attendant who was constantly lecturing us on move on! Keep walking! No gaps! And one
kept up a constant, very patronising "you are all doing so well! Wonderful walking! Aren't you all great!" Very annoying!!

edited to say - you will get in quicker if you don't have a bag. I never take one there any more (we are members).

Yes we skipped ahead of the cartoons on the first floor and just went straight to the tapestry. I didn’t feel they added anything and were paced too slowly so felt like a filler!

My mum had her folding walking stick in case of queues but it didn’t need to come out. They also have the folding stools you could use in the queue

A thousand times THIS!

https://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/actus/what-will-the-new-bayeux-tapestry-museum-look-like/

having seen the tapestry a few times I would say the presentation in London was far superior and you get a much better look

i just looked up what the renovated museum in Bayeux will be like and it is going to display the tapestry in its full length and at an angle. Not sure about it being at an angle but I do think that better than previously when it was on the wall

BM are basically looking after it until the new museum wants it back in 2027🤣

Glad I saw it in France decades ago.

@BeardySchnauzer Are translations from the Latin provided? If not I will take my handy guide!

No - but they have a little cartoon on the wall behind explaining what is happening in the scene