On the optimistic assumption that someone may be (a) still reading this blog and (b) planning to visit the current showing of the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum, a brief note from recent personal experience seems in order. This isn't about the tapestry itself, which is of course both a fascinating work of art and a major historical artefact; it's about visiting this exhibition. I'm assuming that my own experience is typical, which does seem likely from the way things are organised and the fact that the exhibition is booked up for months.
The first thing to say, by way of a minor warning, is that you'll have to queue for a while. The queueing space is pleasant enough, and there are one or two relevant artefacts and objects on display on the way through, but you'll still spend more time waiting than you will actually looking at the Tapestry. Wear comfortable shoes.
The second important thing is that admission to the exhibition comes with a free audio guide that you can load to a smart phone. The overt intention with this is to provide a description of what the Tapestry is showing as you move along it; the real intention is clearly to keep visitors moving along the 70 metres of the Tapestry at a set pace. There are also Museum staff politely shooing people along.
Now, this is understandable and frankly necessary; there are a lot of people visiting this thing, and even with evening opening and all, the only way that the Museum can fit people in is by giving everyone a limited time, which means moving along at a steady pace. However, the movement speed set by the commentary is frankly unrealistically fast; the stream of visitors just can't keep pace with it. It's possible to pause the commentary ,but in order to stop this from being abused, the app sets a limit on the number of pauses, and I ran out long before the end. In addition to that, the commentary is frankly rather basic. Anyone who's done a bit of reading will know the narrative of the Tapestry already, and won't need this much telling; furthermore, by focussing on the narrative, the commentary distracts from the artistry of the work, and completely disregards the interest value of the top and bottom borders, with their sometimes-cryptic images.
So my strong recommendation to anyone planning a visit is simple: Do the reading beforehand, ignore the Museum's attempts to persuade you to download the app (or download it, give it a quick listen, and then turn it off - the secret code is 1066, ha ha), and just take the Tapestry in as best you can as you move along past it. You won't be given enough time to do it justice, but you may see enough to justify the visit, and that's the price we pay for going to a limited-time exhibition instead of, say, going to Bayeux after it's gone back there next year.
(Is this a criticism of the British Museum? Inevitably, yes, I suppose it is. They're doubtless doing the best they can in the circumstances, but they really should have been more realistic about the pace that the queue was going to achieve. A bit more to look at on the way in would have been nice, too.)
