Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum

Hello Linda, I am a member of the British Museum and was in the queue on June 16th as soon as the ticketing opened. But there were a lot of technical snafus and it took me about 8 hours to actually get tickets, even though I was initially "only" about 3500 in the original queue. By July 1st, when the ticketing opened for the public, BM had figured out their technical issues and although the lines were longer, the queue moved quickly and a lot of forum members reported that they had been able to get tickets. So I think your chances are quite high if you get in the queue as soon as the ticketing starts. And if you want to increase your chances even more, you may want to get the membership.

There will be another ticket drop in October, for January-March dates I think. Watch the forum for reports to see how that is going.

All the best!

Map Lady, thanks for that info! Do you recall what time of day it started?

Just in case you don';t manage to get tickets, Reading Museum has a full scale replica of the tapestry which was embroidered in 1885 by a group of Victorian needlewomen. They copied the original by following designs traced onto linen from photographs. Woollen yarns were dyed to match the originals as closely as possible, and the project was completed in little over a year.

It isn't the same as seeing teh original, but may be better than nothing? (It possibly won't be as busy either...)

Entry to the museum is free (although they do appreciate a donation).

Stopping at Reading is sounding very appealing.
I'm planning on getting a British museum membership to increase my chances of getting April tickets.

@ Linda - If I remember correctly, for the members the ticket sales started at 12:30 BST, which is 4:30am PST. And for the regular sales, start time was 10:30 BST but I am not sure about this.

If anyone is planning to get BM membership for access to the Bayeux Tapestry, make sure you have membership for as many adults as you want tickets for. I had a solo membership but I needed to add my husband as a member to get tickets for both of us.

MapLady just one child (13 years) and me, so one membership is enough?

The British Museum website says the following under their membership FAQ:
For children, each Membership cardholder can bring up to 4 children under 16 free of charge. These tickets are booked under the Child (age 4–15) option.

Good luck! I got a membership just for this, and managed to get two tickets on the first day.

Thank you! I had read that at some point but like to 2nd guess myself.

@pbcsd - Yes, you should be fine with that. All the best!

I need to go and see the replica in Reading, but it is worth being aware that it is a "sanitized" copy, some of the ruder imagery was changed.

it is a "sanitized" copy

... don't forget the Victorians were very prudish when it came to the human body. They even covered up table legs!!!

Or some of the pre-Victorians as well, such as Dr. Bowdler who edited Shakespeare in 1818 to remove all the naughty bits, hence the term “bowdlerized.”

Here was my experience and I am not a member:

Posted by phx115
07/01/26 08:27 AM
27 posts
Edit | Delete
UPDATE: I was able to get tickets on the day I wanted. I just didn’t allow for the slowness because of the traffic on the site.
MY EXPERIENCE: On 7/1, I logged on at 4am EDT and there were already 85,000+ ahead of me and multiple hours wait time. Of course, I stayed in the queue, set an alarm for 7am to get up for work and got ready. Sure enough, at 8:42am, as I was driving to work my window opened up. I pulled over and booked two tickets for the late afternoon on 9/21.

Wow, I wasn’t even aware of this! I would really like to fit it in while in the UK from 28 Aug to 1 Sept. It sounds like it’s already sold out. In the US, there’s a pay-to-play system of sorts: if you make a big enough donation to a non-profit, you can get access to almost any event you want.

Are there any things I can do to increase my chances of getting 2-4 tickets?

Thanks

The pay to play option is purchasing British Museum Membership, which costs £82 each, and gets you access to the remaining priority windows.

I've been in and around the Corporate Giving space for a while now, and whilst a more aggressive pay to play option is not unknown here, and will be in existence for something like this, it will be very discreet, invite only, and in the six figures to get privileged access. Us mere plebs will need to get in the (virtual) line.