The Other Tapestry

Hic Londinienses exspectant

The Bayeux Tapestry.
No queue.
(Slightly fewer willies.)

The real one is on loan to the British Museum, where tickets sold out after a nine-hour online queue, and people who got one are still queuing for two hours to get in. Meanwhile, twenty-odd minutes west of Paddington, a full-size Victorian copy is hanging in Reading Museum, free to walk in and see, with basically nobody in front of it.

Same Normans. Same arrow-in-the-eye. Same comet. And yes, Reading is on the Tube map now, so it barely counts as leaving London.

Get me to Reading Book a tour I need convincing
An embroidered strip in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry. Scene one: a huge queue outside the British Museum. Scene two: one person escapes to Tottenham Court Road. Scene three: they ride the Elizabeth line, drawn as a Norman longship. Scene four: they photograph the tapestry in Reading Museum while Halley's comet passes overhead. Scene five: lunch and a browse along a row of independent shops. Scene six: everyone is happy. HERE LONDONERS QUEUE FOR TWO HOURS HERE ONE ESCAPES HERE THEY TAKE THE ELIZABETH LINE HERE THEY SEE THE TAPESTRY HERE THEY SHOP LOCAL AND HERE EVERYONE IS HAPPY BRITISH MUSEUM …all the way to Holborn YOU TOTTENHAM CT RD (sod this) (no changes) YOU READING LOOK, A COMET YOU (photos allowed) (nobody behind you) PIES TOASTIES RECORDS YOU (all independent) YOU (saw it) (fed)
The Reading Tapestry, scenes I–VI. Drag or scroll along, like the real thing.

Hic comparationem faciunt

London v Reading

An entirely fair and balanced comparison, conducted by people who live near Reading.

British Museum, London Reading Museum
Tickets Sold out for the rest of 2026. The next batch goes on sale on 21 October. Try refreshing a bit harder. Don't need one. Free, just walk in. (A fiver in the donation box is good manners.)
Queue Nine hours online to get a ticket, then two hours outside to use it. The museum has had to apologise. Bring a flask. Bring a will. None. You may have to hold a door for someone.
Photos Banned up close since the first week. You can take one from the balcony, where it looks like a very long rug. Go for it (no flash or tripods). Selfie with Harold. Selfie with the comet.
Crowds A one-way route, staff and announcements telling you to keep moving, and some ticket holders turned away altogether. Basically empty. You, a member of staff, and maybe a school trip that will leave before you do.
Explaining it Animations on the wall, in the dark, while you keep moving. Captions all the way along, so you know who's stabbing whom, and nobody hurrying you.
Guided tour You're on your own, pal. Twelve quid for an hour with someone from the museum who knows the whole story. So popular it's booked up until March. You don't need it to see the tapestry.
Genitalia All present and correct, as William intended. The naughty bits have been quietly tidied away. One naked chap in the border got a pair of underpants. You won't miss them.
Lunch A £14 sandwich eaten standing up. Pies at Sweeney & Todd, toasties at Shed, street food on Market Place. All independent.
Getting there Tottenham Court Road. Also Tottenham Court Road. Just stay on the Elizabeth line a bit longer.
Final score 1 (it is the original, fair enough) 7

Hic feminae de Leek acu pingunt

Wait. It's a copy?

Yes, and a proper one. In 1885 Elizabeth Wardle, an embroiderer married to a Staffordshire silk-dyer, got thirty-five women from the Leek Embroidery Society together and decided England should have "a copy of its own". So they made one. Full size. By hand. In about a year.

They worked from hand-coloured photographs held at the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) and stitched every horse, ship, feast and falling Englishman along the whole seventy metres. They also added an extra blue border along the bottom and embroidered their names in it, under the bit each of them sewed. That's more credit than the original stitchers ever got.

Pedant's corner: neither of them is actually a tapestry. They're both embroideries, wool on linen. Nobody's going to rename them now.

The copy toured Britain and then went on tour around the world, while the original stayed at home in France. In 1895 Arthur Hill, a former mayor of Reading, bought it for the town. It was one of the first things on show when the museum's art gallery opened in 1897, and it has had its own gallery there since 1993. It's about as close as you'll get to the real thing without a ferry to Normandy or two hours on a pavement in Bloomsbury.

Hic iter faciunt

Getting there

  1. 1

    Get on a train

    Fast trains from Paddington take about twenty-five minutes. Or get on the Elizabeth line, which goes all the way to Reading. It's on the Tube map, you can tap in with contactless, and it stops at Tottenham Court Road, round the corner from the British Museum queue. Wave to them as you pass.

  2. 2

    Walk two minutes

    Out of Reading station, head for the big Victorian red-brick Town Hall on Blagrave Street. That's the museum. You can't really miss it; it's the one that looks like it has opinions.

  3. 3

    Walk straight in

    It's free, with no ticket, no timed slot and no queue. The guided tours (£12) are booked up until March, but you don't need one to see it.

When it's open

Tuesday to Friday, 10am–4pm
Saturday, 10am–5pm
Closed Sundays, Mondays, bank holidays and between Christmas and New Year. Open on the Monday of October half term.

Guided tours

Tuesday and Thursday at 2.30pm
Saturday at 2pm
£12 per person, suitable for all ages. About an hour, often more, so allow 90 minutes. Almost every date is sold out until March 2027.

Coming as a group? Call the Education team on 0118 937 3400.

Top tip

It's the Year of the Normans, so in term time the gallery sometimes closes on weekdays between 10am and 2.15pm for school workshops. Come on a Saturday or after 2.30pm, and check the museum's gallery closure calendar first.

Times can change, so have a quick look at Reading Museum's opening times and tour bookings before you set off. We're enthusiastic, not omniscient.

Hic prandium sumunt

Make a day of it

You've saved hours of queuing. Spend them wisely. A Saturday works best.

10:30

Train to Reading. Get a window seat. Smugness optional but encouraged.

11:15

Reading Abbey Ruins. A few minutes' walk from the museum through Forbury Gardens, and free. Henry I founded the abbey in 1121 and is buried here. He was William the Conqueror's son, so you're basically starting with the sequel.

12:00

Forbury Gardens. Pay your respects to the enormous cast-iron lion. He arrived in 1886, the same year the Leek ladies finished their tapestry. Coincidence? Yes.

12:30

Lunch, somewhere independent. Reading does these well. A few favourites:

  • Sweeney & Todd, Castle Street. A family-run pie shop that's been going for nearly fifty years.
  • Shed, Merchants Place. Homemade toasties and soup in an old forge, a couple of minutes from the station.
  • Blue Collar street food, Market Place. A rotating line-up of traders on Wednesday and Friday lunchtimes, if you're making it a weekday.

14:00

The tapestry. Walk it end to end at your own pace. Take photos. Take your time. Nobody's behind you.

15:30

Harris Arcade and a coffee. A 1930s Art Deco arcade full of independent shops, including The Sound Machine, Reading's longest-running independent record shop. Then a coffee at C.U.P. on Blagrave Street, right by the museum, or Lincoln Coffee House on Kings Road.

Whenever

Train home. You'll be home before the online booking queue has moved.

Hic quaestiones respondent

Questions people actually ask

Is it really almost identical?

Near enough that most people couldn't tell you what's different without being told. It's the same seventy metres, with all the Latin. There's that extra border of names along the bottom, the underpants, and a few small slips in the margins where the 1872 photographs were blurry or a display case got in the way. If you're a medieval textile specialist you'll have views. Everyone else just enjoys it.

Shouldn't I see the original while it's in the country?

If you can get a ticket and don't mind the wait, sure, go. It's a once-in-a-lifetime loan. But if you've been beaten by the booking page, or you'd like to actually read the thing rather than glimpse it, Reading's got you.

Can I go on a Sunday?

Sadly not. The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday. That's the one thing the British Museum does better, and we're not happy about it.

Can I bring the kids?

Yes. It's a comic strip with horses, ships, a comet and a man getting an arrow in the face. Children are, historically, very into it. Nobody will shush you.

Is this the museum's website?

No. This is a fan site made by people who think more people should know about it. For official information, go to readingmuseum.org.uk.