British Museum overwhelmed as 80,000 queue for Bayeux Tapestry tickets

Nearly 80,000 people queued online for up to nine hours on Wednesday to secure tickets for the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum, causing the museum's booking system to crash Source: infobae. The first batch of tickets, for visits from September 2026 to July 2027, sold out within hours, generating over £2.5 million in revenue — the museum's single highest-grossing day Source: infobae.

Ticket frenzy

The virtual queue swelled from 10,000 at 11:00 BST to over 76,000 by mid-afternoon, with the website warning of wait times of up to nine hours Source: euronewses. The museum urged patience and advised against calling or emailing, as those channels were also overwhelmed Source: infobae. A second and third batch of tickets will go on sale in October and January Source: infobae.

Prices and accessibility

Adult tickets cost £33 for peak times and £27 off-peak — triple the €12 (£10) fee at the tapestry's permanent home in Normandy Source: infobae. Children under 16 enter free. Museum director Nicholas Cullinan defended the pricing on BBC Radio 4, noting that most tickets are off-peak and that young visitors are prioritized Source: infobae. He compared the demand to Glastonbury Festival Source: infobae.

Historical significance

This is the first time in nearly 1,000 years that the Bayeux Tapestry has been exhibited outside Normandy, except for wartime relocations Source: euronewses. The 70-metre embroidered cloth depicts the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Conservators have implemented strict transport protocols due to the tapestry's fragility Source: euronewses.