Once in a 1,000-year chance to see Bayeux Tapestry in England makes for sell-out show

The British Museum expects “huge demand” for its exhibition of the Bayeux Tapestry, its director said on Wednesday, as tickets went on sale to see the 11th-century artwork that is returning to England from France for the first time in nearly 1,000 years.

People across Britain are seizing the chance to see the tapestry depicting the 1066 Norman conquest of England on home turf, Nicholas Cullinan told BBC Radio.

“It will be with us fairly soon, so it’s very exciting,” he said, as tens of thousands of people joined a virtual queue to buy tickets online.

While the precise origins of the 70-metre-long Bayeux Tapestry are obscure, it is believed to have been the work of English embroiderers, but has been in France for the last 950 years.

The details of how the now fragile wool and linen tapestry will be transported to the British Museum in central London from its home at Bayeux in northwestern France are being kept secret, but Cullinan said it would travel via the Channel tunnel.

France confirmed that the museum could borrow the tapestry last July during President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Britain as the guest of King Charles. The loan of such a cultural treasure is seen as a sign of closer ties between the countries after the discord caused by the 2016 Brexit vote.

The tapestry is the product of an earlier period of Anglo-French discord, woven in the years after William the Conqueror, backed by a Norman-French army, took the English throne.

The stitching’s detailed depiction of the build-up to William’s invasion at Hastings, and the brutal clash that followed against the army of Anglo-Saxon ruler King Harold, includes the scene of an arrow hitting Harold in the eye.

A special glass container, which the British Museum believes is the world’s longest showcase, has been made to display and protect the tapestry, and visitors will be able to view its entire length from above and also look at it up close, Cullinan said.

Usually on display at the Bayeux Museum in Normandy, the tapestry will be on display at the British Museum from September until July 2027.

In return, French museums will host some British treasures, including the Sutton Hoo collection of helmets, shields and other metal artwork dating back to the seventh century in Anglo-Saxon England.