Bayeux Tapestry tickets cost £33, British Museum reveals — as exhibition opening date announced
- maxwell museums
- 15 hours ago
- 4 min read
Tickets to see the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum will cost up to £33 it was revealed today.
Peak time pricing will mean the cost of general admission for an adult will sail over the £30 barrier, which is still a relatively rare threshold for London exhibition tickets.
But bosses have said that off-peak tickets will be cheaper, and under-16s will be able to visit the exhibition free of charge when accompanied by an adult.
For those not wanting to pay that top tier price for entry, off-peak tickets for general adult admission will set you back a more modest £27. But those with Art Fund’s National Art Pass will have it cheaper still, at £16.50.
And in an unusual move, the museum will also offer Super-Off-Peak tickets. The last slot of each weekday (in school term time) will command the biggest bargain — an adult ticket will be just £25.
As previously confirmed, 01 July 2026 is the date Bayeux Tapestry tickets go on sale. They will be sold for specific and time-limited 40-minute slots.
Demand is expected to be huge. Its showing in London is predicted to be one of the most popular British Museum exhibitions in the institution's history. Museum Chair of Trustees George Osborne has already called it “the blockbuster show of our generation”.
Bayeux Tapestry exhibition opens 10 September 2026
Museum bosses have also just announced the first day the public will be able to see the remarkable artwork.
The Bayeux Tapestry exhibition — or “experience” as it’s officially being called — will open at the British Museum on Thursday 10 September and will run until 11 July 2027.
Taking into account the museum’s annual three-day closure over Christmas, it means the 70m-long embroidery will be on show in Britain for 302 days. It’s a long run for a truly historic loan — this is the Bayeux Tapestry’s first ever return to the UK since it was made 1,000 years ago.
Visitors are promised that they’ll experience the artwork as it has never been seen before.
The tapestry depicts the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, the last time the country was successfully invaded. It offers a vision of life in 11th-century both before and after the Conquest, from castles, warfare and ships to clothing, food and furniture. Through 58 scenes, 627 characters and 737 animals, the work gives an account of the medieval period in Normandy and England like no other.
At the British Museum, it will be displayed flat for the first time. It will be seen in a specially-constructed showcase in the museum’s Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery, with digital elements being used to extend the storytelling.
Norman-era loans shown alongside the Bayeux Tapestry
Also enhancing the show’s narrative will be a number of important Norman Conquest-era objects on display in the show too.
These include items from the British Museum’s collection, but also key loans from institutions such as the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Highlights include a charter of Edward the Confessor of 1060 granting lands in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, to Westminster Abbey. The signing of this document was witnessed by several individuals who appear in the tapestry, including King Edward ‘the Confessor’, Harold’s sister, Queen Edith, and Archbishop Stigand. The charter will travel to London on loan from Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies.
Also shown will be a hoard of silver pennies of Harold II and William I known as the Chew Valley Hoard. They were buried in Somerset soon after the Norman Conquest, and experts believe the coins were buried for safekeeping during the rebellion against Norman rule in the south-west of England. The hoard was sensationally discovered in 2019 by a group metal detecting in the Chew Valley.
British Museum curator Michael Lewis said the upcoming display of the Bayeux Tapestry offered visitors “a once in a lifetime opportunity to be part of history.” He said the additional loans would “help visitors fully appreciate the tapestry, explaining why and how the embroidery was made.”
Nicholas Cullinan, British Museum director, said: “Since we first announced this historic loan, we have been committed to ensuring as many people as possible can see it, and we’re excited about welcoming the first visitors through the doors on the 10th of September.”
There'll also be a an astonishing eight new books published by the British Museum to accompany the landmark loan. There'll be five books aimed at children and published in collaborarion with Nosy Crow, while adults get three volumes. One will be a sumptuous Bayeux Tapestry Collector’s Edition catalogue priced at £150.
Fans of the middle ages are being treated this year. Before the unveiling of the Tapestry in London this September, a blockbuster medieval exhibition is on show in Bruges this summer, telling that city's European links through remarkable historic objects.