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!

Meant to come back here and update, and was reminded by another thread. I saw it last Friday at 1800 and it was brilliant! Hardly any viewers, and the queue was relatively well managed.

I did download the BM audio guide and take my own headphones, which was very useful, especially as signage is minimal. And yes, as pp said, sometimes the queue did not keep pace with the audio guide. But that's a minor quibble in an altogether marvellous experience. I had chills when I saw the battle scenes and Halley's Comet speaking through the ages.

Many many thanks @Letsgetthiswrongagain and @whatHappensWhenMNRunsOutOfNNs.
I feel very lucky to have heard about this early release, as there is another thread running about the ticket booking opening up again, and most people are way back in the queue.

Useful post about the experience here - comes from an autism angle but is a good detailed run through of the whole experience https://helenjeffries.wordpress.com/?s=tapestry

If your tickets are for 1.20 you won't be allowed to go through into the actual exhibition until that time. When we went our tickets were for 12pm and we went through in a small group but then queued inside with other people. We finally got to look at the tapestry 90 minutes later.

When we went they only searched large bags, ie back packs.

@OsfameronTanamoril I was there 30 minutes after you and was getting ready for the massive queue (had my book ready) and was surprised there was hardly anyone there! I took my two daughters who are in first year of GCSE History and two of their friends and they loved it. They even got their history teacher a pin badge.