Last updated: 28 October 2026. I checked the booking windows, ticket prices and membership rules in this Bayeux Tapestry British Museum ticket guide against the museum's own pages on 28 October 2026.
By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture
The two dates that matter
January to March 2027 sold out after its 21 October release. The last block, April to 11 July 2027, opens to members in January 2027 and to everyone else in early 2027.
Check availability at the British Museum
Sold out until April, and the queue was 80,000 people long
The Bayeux Tapestry British Museum display opened on 10 September 2026 and runs to 11 July 2027, and every slot up to 31 March 2027 has already gone. So the useful question is no longer where to buy a ticket. It is how to get one at all. The last public release, for April to July 2027, lands in early 2027, joining as a member now buys no free visit and no early booking, and the National Art Pass does something different again.
Why the first Bayeux Tapestry British Museum tickets vanished
Booking opened on 1 July 2026 and the museum took £2.5 million that day, which it called the single biggest day of ticket sales in its history. The Art Newspaper reported an online queue of more than 80,000 people and website traffic at 4.7 times its daily average. By the evening, every slot from 10 September to 31 December 2026 had gone.
Two things made that likely. First, the embroidery has not been in England since English hands made it, nearly 1,000 years ago. The museum's director Nicholas Cullinan calls it "one of the most important and unique cultural artefacts in the world". Second, entry is timed and the route runs one way, so the room takes a fixed number of people an hour. That caps supply in a way an ordinary blockbuster show never does.
The first day took £2.5 million and put 80,000 people in a queue.
Isti mirant stella. The crowd points at Halley's Comet while Harold hears the news. Photograph by Myrabella, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Section 01 / The calendar
When the next Bayeux Tapestry British Museum tickets go on sale
Three releases, not one, and only the last is still to come.
The museum is letting the ten-month run out in blocks rather than all at once, so Bayeux Tapestry British Museum tickets arrive in three waves. Tickets for 1 January to 31 March 2027 went on public sale on 21 October 2026, and the museum now lists that block as sold out to the public and fully booked for members. The last block, April to 11 July 2027, opens in early 2027, and the museum has not yet given that a date. Members reach each block first, and I have set both routes side by side below.
Every booking window, taken from the British Museum's exhibition and Membership pages on 27 October 2026. Tap the chart to open it full size.
How to be ready on the day
Queueing systems reward preparation rather than speed of clicking, so a little admin the night before is worth more than fast fingers. The museum sends release news through its own newsletter first, so sign up there rather than waiting for a headline.
- The booking cap. Ten tickets per booking, and the museum cancels multiple bookings made from the same email address.
- The name on the ticket. Only the person who booked can use it, and staff may ask for ID.
- The cheap slots. Super off-peak means term-time weekdays between 15.30 and 16.20, so a Tuesday in February will cost less and is likely to clear last.
- Groups of 11 to 30. The museum closed group booking on 18 October 2026.
- The trip in. If you are travelling in for the day, a railcard usually pays for itself on one return, and I keep the current codes on my railcard discount page.
Section 02 / The money
What a Bayeux Tapestry British Museum ticket actually costs
Three adult tiers, a flat concession rate, and a pass that halves all of them.
An adult standard Bayeux Tapestry British Museum ticket is £33. Off-peak drops that to £27, and super off-peak to £25. Students, 16 to 18 year olds, jobseekers and disabled visitors pay £25 whichever tier they book, and a disabled visitor's assistant goes free, though you still need to book that ticket. Under 16s are free with a paying adult, up to four per adult.
Adult prices at each tier, next to the National Art Pass rate. Checked on the British Museum's ticket page, 28 October 2026.
Every tier also offers a version with £3.50 added as a donation, which UK taxpayers can Gift Aid so the museum claims another 25% on the whole price. That donation is optional, and staff treat a plain ticket exactly the same at the door.
Section 03 / Membership
British Museum membership, and the change that catches new joiners
It still buys you the early booking window. It no longer buys you two visits.
Individual membership costs £82 a year by direct debit, or £92 on a card, and £62 for anyone under 26. Adding a guest facility takes it to £112, a second card to £106, and both to £166. Membership covers every special exhibition, so the Korea show, open since 1 October 2026, counts too.
For existing members, the calendar is the real prize. Members booked the January to March 2027 block on 6 October 2026, fifteen days before the public, and they get the final block in January 2027 while everyone else waits for early 2027. However, that priority window only covers members who joined by 16 September 2026, so joining now does not put you in it. Every member, new or old, can still book uncharged places at any member-only sessions the museum runs outside public hours. Once a date has sold out, those sessions are the one other route into the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum.
No free visit for anyone joining now
The museum has cut the free visits twice. Anyone who was already a member on 26 August 2026 can book two uncharged visits across the whole run. Anyone who joined between 27 August and 16 September 2026 gets one. Anyone joining from 17 September 2026 gets no free visit at all, just 10% off each visit, and no priority booking either. The museum states this plainly on its Visiting as a Member page and describes it as protecting availability for existing members.
So the sum for a new joiner is no longer £82 against even one £33 ticket. It is £82 for 10% off each visit, a year of the other paid exhibitions and any member-only sessions. On that arithmetic, membership only pays off if you were going to visit the museum's paid shows anyway. It is poor value if the tapestry is the only thing on your list. Members still have to book a timed ticket like everyone else.
Section 04 / The other card
The National Art Pass is not British Museum membership
Different organisation, different benefit, and it will not get you into a sold-out slot.
The National Art Pass is Art Fund's card, not the British Museum's, and the two are easy to confuse when both promise exhibition access. At this display the pass takes an adult ticket from £33 to £16.50, from £27 to £13.50, and from £25 to £12.50. Half price, at every tier.
What it does not do is move you up the queue. The pass carries no priority booking window, so a holder joins the public queue like everyone else. It does not open a sold-out date, and it does not make entry free the way it does at some smaller venues. My National Art Pass page has the annual cost and the wider list of what it covers, so you can work out whether the rest of the year justifies it.
Reciprocal entry is worth a line too. The museum did not accept ICOM, ICOMOS, Museums Association or NMDC passes for the tapestry from September to December 2026. From 1 January to 31 March 2027, ICOM, ICOMOS and NMDC passes work on Tuesdays from 10.00 to 17.00, booked online in advance with one reciprocal ticket per transaction and ID checked at the door. Museums Association cards are not on that list. That block now shows as sold out, and the museum has not yet said whether passes will work from April.
Section 05 / The hard part
There are no returns, so do not wait for one
The museum's own terms rule out the resale market that usually appears around a sold-out show.
Nobody is handing back Bayeux Tapestry British Museum tickets, and the terms explain why. People assume a sold-out exhibition leaks tickets back as plans change, and at some venues it does. This one blocks that deliberately. The museum's ticket terms say the museum will not refund or exchange a ticket, and that nobody can change the date, time slot or event once a booking completes. So nobody hands a ticket back, because handing it back earns them nothing.
Resale fails from the other direction too. A ticket resold or transferred for profit becomes void, staff can refuse entry, and no compensation follows. Since a ticket carries the booker's name, buying one from a stranger risks losing the money and the visit together. Members have one extra route, because the museum lets every member book uncharged places at member-only sessions outside public hours.
What happens if the queue ends while you wait
This happened to me on the second wave, the January to March 2027 release. I joined the online queue and waited for the email telling me it was my turn. Instead, the email said the queue had ended and my place in it had been cancelled. That block has since sold out, so there was no way back in.
The email Queue-it sent when the Wave 2 queue closed. Tap to open it full size.
So a place in the queue is not a reservation. Once a release sells out, the queue closes and everyone still waiting drops out together. Queue-it's own email also warns that its messages can arrive late or land in spam. For the April to July release, keep the queue tab open rather than waiting on your inbox, and have a second date ready in case your first choice goes.
Section 06 / The visit
What 40 minutes in Room 30 is actually like
Timed, one way, dimly lit, and shorter than most people expect.
The Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum sits in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery, Room 30, laid flat at a height of 80cm with an animation running behind it. Light levels are low throughout to protect the embroidery, and the route runs one way, so you cannot double back to a scene you rushed. The museum asks you to allow about 40 minutes and starts clearing the space ten minutes before closing.
Tickets arrive by email four days before your slot, and the museum asks visitors to turn up 5 to 10 minutes before the time on the ticket. You can photograph the tapestry without flash, though the museum bars sketching. Buggies and large bags cannot come in, and the paid cloakroom fills up. One accessible toilet sits in the foyer and none inside the space. Leave for the Great Court toilets and you cannot get back in.
Opening hours are 10.00 to 18.00 on Sunday to Wednesday and 10.00 to 21.00 on Thursday to Saturday. Those late evenings carry three extra hours of slots a day, which is where the January release will have the most room.
Section 07 / Getting there
Travelling to London for the Bayeux Tapestry
From the station to the cloakroom, for anyone coming in by train.
A lot of people booking Bayeux Tapestry British Museum tickets will not live in London, so the train needs as much planning as the slot. Book the museum first, since that ticket cannot be moved or refunded, and then fit the journey around it. Leave a proper margin, too. The museum wants you at the door 5 to 10 minutes before your time, and everyone goes through a security check and bag search before that.
The main entrance is on Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG. Tottenham Court Road is the nearest Tube station, a five-minute walk, and it is on the Elizabeth line as well as the Central and Northern lines. Holborn and Russell Square are both about seven minutes away, and Goodge Street about eight. So from King's Cross St Pancras it is one stop on the Piccadilly line to Russell Square, and from Euston it is two stops on the Northern line to Goodge Street. From Paddington or Liverpool Street, the Elizabeth line takes you straight to Tottenham Court Road.
Check your bag before you set off. The museum does not allow wheeled suitcases of any size, or anything larger than 40 x 40 x 50cm or heavier than 8kg, and its paid cloakroom stops taking items once it is full. Instead, it points visitors to the luggage storage at Euston, King's Cross and Charing Cross.
On timing, a super off-peak slot on a term-time weekday afternoon means you can usually travel in on an off-peak fare. The journey home needs more care, however, because some train companies restrict off-peak tickets out of London in the early evening. Check the validity of the return before you pay.
For the fare itself, TrainPal is worth a look. The app charges no booking fee and checks automatically whether splitting your journey into two or more tickets would cost less, while you stay on the same train. New users also get money off their first ticket with an invite code. I keep the current code and the steps to claim it on my TrainPal discount code page.
Section 08 / Plan B
Who should simply wait, and what to do instead
Waiting costs nothing, and the display runs until July.
If you are not a member, not near London, and not free on a weekday, then the early 2027 release for April to July is the one to aim for. The Bayeux Tapestry British Museum run lasts ten months, the April to July block has not opened at all yet, and school holidays will always be the hardest dates to land. Equally, if you are taking children, the free under-16 tickets make an off-peak weekday the obvious choice anyway.
Bishop Odo blesses the food and drink before Hastings. Photograph by Myrabella, Wikimedia Commons, public domain, cropped.
Three things fill the gap in the meantime. The Bayeux Museum publishes the whole embroidery online, scene by scene, at a resolution no gallery visit will match, and its own building stays shut for renovation until autumn 2027, which is why the loan happened at all. The museum's Bayeux Around Britain programme runs events at more than 60 museums and heritage sites across the UK. You can also stand where the battle was fought, at Battle Abbey in East Sussex, which English Heritage runs; my English Heritage membership maths shows when a membership beats paying at the gate. And London's other free collections are still free, which is the point of my V&A East review.
Bayeux Tapestry British Museum tickets: frequently asked questions
Is the Bayeux Tapestry sold out?
Every Bayeux Tapestry British Museum slot from 10 September 2026 to 31 March 2027 is sold out, for members and for the public alike. The 1 January to 31 March 2027 block went on sale on 21 October 2026 and has sold out too. The April to 11 July 2027 dates open to members in January 2027 and to the public in early 2027, and the museum has not yet given that a day.
How much are Bayeux Tapestry tickets?
An adult ticket is £33 standard, £27 off-peak and £25 super off-peak, which is term-time weekdays between 15.30 and 16.20. Students, 16 to 18 year olds, jobseekers and disabled visitors pay £25 at any tier, and under 16s go free with a paying adult.
How long does the visit take?
The museum asks you to allow about 40 minutes. Entry runs on timed slots, the route goes one way, and staff start clearing the space ten minutes before closing.
Does British Museum membership get you in?
Not if you join now. Members who joined by 26 August 2026 get two uncharged visits, and those who joined from 27 August to 16 September 2026 get one, plus priority booking. Anyone joining from 17 September 2026 gets 10% off each visit and no priority booking, and every member still has to book a timed ticket.
Does a National Art Pass work for the Bayeux Tapestry?
Yes, as a half-price ticket rather than free entry: £16.50 standard, £13.50 off-peak and £12.50 super off-peak. It carries no priority booking, so it does not help while a date is sold out.
Can I get a refund or change my time slot?
No. The British Museum's ticket terms rule out refunds and exchanges, and nobody can change the date, time or event after booking. A ticket resold for profit becomes void.
How long is the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum?
It is on display from 10 September 2026 to 11 July 2027 in Room 30, the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery. After that it returns to France for the reopened Bayeux Museum.
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Disclaimer. Prices, dates and booking rules change. I checked every figure here against the British Museum's own exhibition, Membership and ticket terms pages on 28 October 2026, and the museum can alter any of them. Images: details of the Bayeux Tapestry photographed by Myrabella, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain, cropped for this article. Charts by CoolCuration.
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