Want to see the Bayeaux tapestry at London's British Museum? Get this date in your diary

Forget Taylor Swift, this could be the hot cultural ticket of 2026: the Bayeux Tapestry is coming to London’s British Museum. And we now know when tickets are going on sale.

Tickets will be available from July 1st, for entry to the exhibition on dates between September and December 2026.

We expect these tickets to go fast, as this is quite a special event.

This will be the first time the Bayeaux Tapestry has been displayed in England since it was made almost a thousand years ago.

You know the name, but do you know the history? The famous tapestry depicts the events surrounding the Battle of Hastings — the famous 1066 one — and the Norman Conquest. Some of you may have learned about this stuff in school.

The Bayeux Tapestry is typically held in the Bayeux Museum in Normandy, which has closed for renovations, leaving room for its stint at the British Museum.

It has made headlines recently because some say the risk of shipping it from France to England is just too great for what is a fragile historical artefact. iPad botherer David Hockey called it “madness” in a piece he wrote for the Independent.

But if it does go by without a hitch, this exhibition will be one not to miss.

“It is hard to overstate the significance of this extraordinary opportunity of displaying it at the British Museum and we are profoundly grateful to everyone involved. This will be the first time the Bayeux Tapestry has been in the UK since it was made, almost 1000 years ago,” says Dr Nicholas Cullinan, director of the British Museum.

The British Museum will get both the 70m-long original tapestry and a replica made in 1886 in Staffordshire. They are insured for around £800 million according to the BBC.

While the first tranche of tickets only covers the first three months of the exhibition, it will be on show longer than that. The Bayeux Tapestry will be in London until July 2027, by which time the Normandy museum’s renovation is planned to be done and dusted.

A once-in-a-dozen-lifetimes opportunity? Get that July 1st tickets reminder in the calendar.

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