The Bayeux Tapestry

Event information

• Type: Experience
• Date: 10 September 2026 – 11 July 2027
• Location: British Museum
• Address: Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG
• Official page: https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/bayeux-tapestry

Details

For the first time since it was made nearly 1,000 years ago, the Bayeux Tapestry is returning to England.

Following a historic agreement with France, the 70-metre-long tapestry, depicting events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, will be loaned to the British Museum from September 2026 to July 2027.

This monumental embroidery tells the dramatic story of a moment that changed England forever. No year in the country's history is more famous than 1066. It was the last time England was successfully invaded, and it is the year from which the modern monarchy dates itself. And there is no other object that is as instantly recognisable, as studied in schools and as copied by artists as the Bayeux Tapestry.

One of the wonders of the medieval world, the Tapestry offers a vision of life in 11th-century England both before and after the Conquest, from castles, warfare and ships to clothing, food and furniture. Likely commissioned by a Norman patron and made by English embroiderers, using manuscript drawings from Canterbury, the Tapestry is both a precious historical record and a remarkable work of art.

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The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most important and unique cultural artefacts in the world, which illustrates the deep ties between Britain and France and has fascinated people across geographies and generations. 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 1,000 years ago. To encounter the tapestry in person is to feel history in a way no reproduction or textbook can ever really quite capture, a sense of absolute awe.

Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE, Director of the British Museum