British Museum Rolls Out New Measures to Ease Bayeux Tapestry Queues
Under mounting public pressure, the British Museum has announced a package of new measures — effective Monday — to ease the long queues at its blockbuster Bayeux Tapestry exhibition.
According to the BBC and The Times, the museum unveiled the measures on Sunday, October 4, with most taking effect Monday, October 5. They include: extended opening hours, additional seating in queuing areas, clearer signage to guide visitors through different parts of the exhibition, the introduction of an audio guide, and a full review of ticketing and admissions so that ticket holders are no longer turned away.
The exhibition currently opens Sunday to Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Thursday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Because the thousand-year-old textile can only tolerate limited daily light exposure, the museum has not said exactly how it will extend hours. The museum also promised better coordination between exhibition scheduling and private events — a private gala was what left ticket holders stranded last month.
"The response to the Bayeux Tapestry has been extraordinary, and we are delighted by the excitement and interest it has generated," the museum said in a statement. "We also know that some visitors have faced longer queues than we would have wanted, so we are introducing a series of measures … to make the experience smoother and give more people the time they need to enjoy the display."
The queue problem has been building for weeks. Visitors have reported waits of up to two hours, while the promised 40-minute viewing slot is often compressed to 25 or 30 minutes. Queuing areas had no seats and no toilets, and staff plus bilingual recordings kept urging visitors to "keep moving" — an experience one visitor likened to "a conveyor belt." On Wednesday, September 30, the museum closed early for a private dinner attended by Chancellor John Healey; the afternoon backlog meant about 200 ticket holders were asked to leave before they could enter. The museum apologized, offered refunds and free rescheduling, and called it an "isolated incident."
The museum had already acted in the exhibition's opening week: from September 21, it banned all photography — revising its website's earlier "non-flash photography allowed" guidance to a full ban — because visitors lingering for photos were slowing the line. Drawing and sketching are also prohibited, and "please keep moving" reminders were added along the display. The ban drew criticism: Royal Central called it "entirely the wrong decision," arguing that "history belongs to everyone."
The exhibition opened to the public on September 10, 2026, and runs through July 11, 2027. The roughly 70-meter embroidery depicts the Norman conquest of 1066 and the Battle of Hastings. It is the first time in nearly a thousand years that the tapestry has left France for display in Britain, and the loan has been cast as a symbol of post-Brexit Anglo-French repair. Tickets went on sale July 1, with first-day sales of £2.5 million — a museum record; the online queue peaked at 80,000 people. The first batch of about 100,000 tickets (September 10–December 31) sold out within hours. Standard adult admission is £33 (£27 off-peak). Director George Osborne has projected total attendance of about one million. The next batch of tickets (January 1–March 31, 2027) goes on sale October 21.
The exhibition also faces a legal challenge. Dr Yusuf Ali Osman, a registered blind man, sent a legal letter to the museum on September 24 via the law firm Leigh Day, alleging a breach of the Equality Act's duty to make reasonable adjustments — the show offers no audio description for blind visitors, putting him at a substantial disadvantage. It is not yet clear whether the newly announced audio guide is an audio-described version for blind visitors.
Nick Bubnovich, 79, flew in from Atlanta, Georgia, specially to see the tapestry. His 1 p.m. ticket meant 50 minutes of queuing; he entered at 1:52 and got 30 minutes inside. "The leadership here sold way, way too many tickets," he said. "It's crowded and they tell you to move along, keep moving. That's not the way you enjoy art. … If you've been to the Louvre to visit the Mona Lisa, you don't take a glance and keep on moving." Martin Bailey of The Art Newspaper did the math: at £33, the ticket works out to about £1 per minute — 35 seconds per scene across the tapestry's 58 scenes.