Dear Readers, as long-time members of the British Museum we were able to get tickets for the Bayeux Tapestry, currently being exhibited in London for the first time. The show is now sold out until the end of the year, but the next booking period will open on 21st October for viewing in the early part of 2027 – you can sign up for information here, which I would recommend. Members get an early shot at tickets on 6th October.

Why should you go? Well, for me the fact that this tapestry has survived for almost a thousand years is reason enough, but what stunned me when I saw it was the wealth of detail, and the insight into how people lived – everything from preparing a feast to building a ship. We see people hoisting up their clothes to wade out to a ship, carrying chain mail, building castles,  roasting chickens and pigs on a rotisserie. We see houses burned with a woman and child inside. We, famously, see Halley’s comet giving the blessing to Harold’s coronation. And when the battle comes we see the brutality, horses overturned, people with missing limbs, and bodies being stripped naked for their armour. I didn’t expect to be moved by what is, after all, an embroidered cartoon, but I was.

So, now that I’ve (hopefully) convinced you that it’s worth a look, here are a few practical tips.

• If the organisation continues as it was today, there will be two queues, one for general admission and one for people with Bayeux tapestry tickets (and members). The ticket-holder queue is usually much shorter.
• There are two entrances, the main one and the one at the back on Monmouth Street. The latter is, again, usually much shorter.
• Don’t bring big bags, it just slows up the security queue.
• Once in, it’s worth checking who is being allowed in – on a weekday morning we were allowed straight in, even though our tickets were for a later time slot.
• People are managed in groups of ten, with a couple of useful videos first, and then you move along the balcony, so you can see the tapestry from above at a distance while you wait.
• No photography allowed, no, not even with your phone.
• The tapestry is displayed flat, but you get a really good view.
• However, you are told to keep moving, which most people do (though there are always the ones who think it’s appropriate to stop at one panel for ten minutes). You can move round them, however. Part of me thinks a small cattle prod would be a good idea, but maybe that’s just me being mean. If everyone shuffles along slowly, everyone gets a good look. It’s only fair.
• I think that the exhibition has been managed very well, in spite of some online moans about queues etc. My overall advice would be to get there at least an hour before your time slot – it will probably take less time than this, but if you get in early you can always have a coffee/browse the bookshop/see if you can get in early. This is probably the British Museum’s biggest exhibition since Tutankhamun back in the 1970s, so a bit of queueing is inevitable. But what an amazing thing to see! And cheaper than getting the train to Bayeux for sure.