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!

Oh, and would you be kind enough to direct me to the page please, @JustEatThePizza, as a friend of mine was considering membership so I'd like to send it on to her.

You do - even as a new member - it says here

https://www.britishmuseum.org/membership/membership-faqs

"We are not intending any changes to existing procedures for Member entry to our established special exhibition programme. The booking process for The Bayeux Tapestry experience is in response to the unprecedented demand and to guarantee your viewing opportunity as a Member."

the restrictions are just around the tapestry exhibition.

Thanks @PatriciaHolm

https://www.britishmuseum.org/membership/visiting-as-a-member#the-bayeux-tapestry

Thanks @JustEatThePizza. It sounds like they've had quite the influx of new members as people saw it as a way to get tickets. I suppose they're keen to increase membership numbers as it's an important revenue stream, but were in danger of running out of tickets entirely by the sound of it, plus they've already made commitments to existing members. It'd be interesting to know how many new members this exhibition has generated, and I wonder how many will renew next year.

I found out that the sold-out exhibitions at the V&A allowed members to get in, and typically buy a membership every time there's a major exhibition. I would assume that most museums and galleries bank on memberships being sold as a way to get access.

Can imagine that membership sign-up has definitely dropped since it doesn't include tickets to the exhibition, and the membership is as it stands is poor value this year because there are less exhibitions to view as opposed to previous years.

As of today the British Museum would be at the bottom of my list of museums/galleries to buy an annual membership to.

I'd be interested in knowing how many tickets there are. I'm not sure why the British Museum are being so coy about it. Google tells me that the Terracotta Warriors in 1995 drew 850,000 and the Tutankhamun exhibition in 1972 saw 1.7 million people! No virtual queues in those days either. I was reading about the queues. Every single day, the queue was hours long. Astonshing really.

British Museum members are usually able to access even sold out exhibitions and as many times as they like, but demand for this is exceptional. Their last sold out exhibiton was, I think, 'The World of Stonehenge' which, apparently, had just shy of 200,000 visitors. This must be more like the scale of those huge exhibitions I mentioned.

I'm sure you're right that new membership will immediately drop back to its normal rate.

Went this afternoon
Tickets for 1340 and went through bang on time. Got to the Tapestry at 1520. The time in between was spent queuing whilst a few videos played and listening to the staff shouting at the line to move on.
Its a beautiful thing but somewhat spoilt by being hurried along so much, don’t know what the solution is though.

I admit, we bought a membership because of the early access to the tickets. We went by the logic that 3x £33 is already £100 and we have then the opportunity to go again.

Just on my way home. It was worse than I feared. Got there for 6 and got to the tapestry at 7.45. it was amazing once we got going but I really feel like complaining and won't ever get tickets for anything there again.

If you have any sort of mobility issues give this a miss.

It sounds like weekends are still bad but week days are ok now

They must be staying open late because when we left the queue was still horrendous.

Saw the Tapestry today. Our tickets were for 4.30 so I was a little concerned. But it was fine. Took about 40 minutes to shuffle to the Tapestry. There were places to sit if you wanted/needed until the very last section of queue. It would have been nice to have longer to look at it, but at least you get to see every single bit of it, unlike some other exhibitions where there are sometimes large crowds around the most popular items, making them hard to see unless you're lucky.

I have tickets for 13.20 tomorrow and I suffer quite badly from anxiety so going with a friend. Could anyone tell me what time to arrive to get through security and the queue for the exhibit? Thank you

Tickets currently available for Thursday and Friday this week

It says sold out for this week and the foreseeable future. Am I wrong?

@dandeliondandy , The time on your ticket is the time you can join the queue for the tapestry. You'll need a friend to help pass the time whilst you're waiting in the queue.

So turn up shortly before the time your ticket says (15min?) and work your way through the bag search tent on the museum forecourt.

There shouldn't be a queue to enter the tapestry exhibit area and no further security checks - no different from the rest of the museum - but after you enter, you'll be shuffling along for at least an hour in the gloom b/c they project images onto the walls.

As PPs observe, there is hardly any supporting info about the tapestry. Unlike other exhibits at other museums where there are paragraphs to absorb to appreciate fully what is on display.

Definitely available - I’ve booked for Friday.

A thousand blessings on you and yours. Just got tickets for tomorrow. Tried for Sunday but they were disappearing before my very eyes and the site was glitchy.

Maybe we can have a special MN badge and wave to each other?😀
I am so thrilled.

Thank you so much for your advice and help @tarheelbaby 💐I will make sure we arrive well before. It will probably be very smooth but my anxiety is working overtime because of it.

When you arrive, go to the correct queue outside the museum for the security check.

With a Bayeaux ticket you can go directly to the one which may just say "Members" and it saves a lot of waiting. We just showed them to the staff and they directed us immediately away from the general queue.

They may have improved signage hopefully, it was a bit of mayhem in September.

@OsfameronTanamoril You are very welcome! I’m going on Friday after a day at an art fair otherwise I would gladly don my MN badge!

@Letsgetthiswrongagain and @OsfameronTanamoril I hope you enjoy it. An age ago when we used to have meet-ups in London, we had "Atrocious Cunt" (which was then a term of MNet endearment) badges.

I hope you will share your experiences as I want to book for DH and me when booking reopens on 21st October, but reading about people's experiences on here, I think we'll wait until it's back in Bayeaux.

I think weekends are bad - particularly later in the day but week days seem to be fine

Be sure to download the British Museum app and the Bayeux Tapestry experience and remember your headphones/earbuds. The audio experience is pretty good, but the problem when I went was that hardly anyone was using it, so that I, who was, was being chivvied along a little faster than the people in front of me were going. They say feel free to overtake, but of course then you have to shove your way back in and it's not as easy as it sounds. The "secret" code for the app is 1066 if you want to have a go in advance.