Thousands of people in the UK rush to buy tickets for the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum after the 11th-century artwork begins its return to England for the first time in nearly 1,000 years. Multiple outlets report very high demand when tickets go on sale, with online queues that reach several hours and, in some cases, up to around nine hours. The British Museum says it anticipates huge interest, while public reports describe tens of thousands of people waiting in virtual lines. Some ticket-holders are directed to dates in the following year after earlier ticket allocations run out, according to reports.
The tapestry, a wool-on-linen embroidered cloth about 230 feet long, is set to travel from France to the UK for the exhibition, which runs from September 2026 until July 2027, with the British Museum hosting the display. Outlets also cite expectations that the exhibition could draw tens of thousands of visitors and mention record-breaking sales figures reported by some papers, while other accounts focus mainly on the scale of the queue and the sell-out nature of the demand.
