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There have been diplomatic rows and hand-wringing over damage, but the next challenge for the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition is forming an orderly queue.
There is substantial demand to see the medieval artwork on its first return to England in 900 years and the British Museum is now grappling with how to ensure people move along the line viewing the 230-ft long artwork at a steady pace.
Prof Michael Lewis, a medievalist and head of the Bayeux project at the British Museum, said that crowds may need a “gentle” nudge as they bunch up at certain points in the story.
“Harold taking the arrow is thankfully right at the end, so that makes things a bit easier,” he said.
Prof Lewis said that the exhibition did not want visitors to “feel like they are on a timer”, but said that in the main viewing space it was important that ticket-holders “progress together” smoothly past the tapestry.
He added that techniques would be used to “move people along in a gentle way”.
Animations will be displayed behind the tapestry, dramatising the events of AD 1066 and explaining certain scenes, and it is hoped when each one fades out, visitors will get the message and move on to the next section.
Prof Lewis said: “Projections will come and go, and encourage people to move to the next part. People could spend all day in front of the Bayeux Tapestry, but it’s about trying to get that balance.”
He added: “The British are very good at queuing aren’t they, so hopefully it shouldn’t be a problem.”
The embroidery is insured for £800m and is extremely fragile so can only be exposed to light for a limited number of hours per day. Visitors who have paid £33 a ticket will see the tapestry laid out on the floor in an unbroken line.
To deal with crowds viewing the 58 embroidered scenes, including Harold’s death, visitors will be guided along a strict one-way system.
Hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected to visit the Bayeux Tapestry while it is on display and curators are now grappling with how to ensure a smooth queue along its vast length, and to prevent bottlenecks as ticket-holders, limited to 40-minute slots, pause to study scenes of the Norman conquest.
Visitors have been assigned a timed entry slot into a first exhibition space which will introduce the context of the Bayeux Tapestry’s creation, with artefacts from Anglo-Saxon England and Normandy.
People will then move through to watch a projection of “house rules” for the exhibition, including a strict prohibition on touching the bullet-proof and “very expensive” glass case containing the tapestry.
Visitors will then move along a suspended “bridge” overlooking the tapestry in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery, one of the few large enough to display the artwork in a straight line, and read about key characters in the events of 1066. Then they will descend to view the tapestry up close.
Prof Lewis said: “In Bayeux, you are behind a rail, and the tapestry was set back, so you are perhaps a metre away. Here, you can get right on top of it.”
Visitors will move along the length of the tapestry, which will be displayed flat at the request of the French state to reduce stress on the fabric, whose extreme fragility has been used as a reason to cancel previous attempts to loan the artwork.
It was displayed in a hanging position at the Bayeux Museum in Normandy, before it was transported by lorry in an overnight operation under police escort.
Other ambient sound installations will attempt to encourage a “solemn” atmosphere in the exhibition, which British Museum bosses hope will be seen by thousands of schoolchildren, but Prof Lewis said that there would be no strict rules on noise.
He said: “It’s not a religious procession. We do want adults to talk to the kids.”
After visitors have moved through the tapestry’s 58 surviving scenes, from Edward the Confessor’s reign to William’s victory at Hastings, they will enter another space explaining the lasting legacy of the Norman Conquest in Britain.
This cross-Channel connection was one that Emmanuel Macron, the French president, wished to stress by signing off the loan of the Tapestry, as revealed by The Telegraph in 2025.
There were immediate concerns about the risk involved in sending the tapestry to London, and Nicholas Cullinan, the British Museum director, was in personal contact with Mr Macron about the progress of his diplomatic gesture.
Some experts warned vibrations from transport by road would destroy the 11th century artwork, and French conservationists launched a legal challenge to block the loan, as concerns grew that British potholes could shake it apart.
The tapestry was carefully folded and placed inside two shock-proof boxes, themselves placed within a climate-controlled lorry for its journey, and arrived safely at the British Museum without damage in early July after a slow journey by road and Eurotunnel.
Cathier Pegard, the French culture minister, said after an inspection in London that the tapestry’s “wonderful” condition would “reassure all the sceptics”.
The Bayeux Tapestry can be seen by the public for nine months from Sept 10, in a UK display the Prof Lewis said “will never happen again”.
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