Residents of ‘1066 Country’ lose battle for Bayeux tapestry tickets

Hastings residents have missed out on tickets for the Bayeux tapestry after being put on hold for hours by a “glitchy and shambolic” phone system, their MP has said.

People from “1066 Country” were promised a chance to buy before a sales line opened to the public on Wednesday. But Helena Dollimore, the MP for Hastings and Rye, said it has been almost impossible for her constituents to get through to the British Museum.

VIP guests including Maya Jama, Mick Jagger and senior staff at Samsung and Bloomberg have had no such issues gaining access to Bayeux viewings, having attended star-studded balls and dinners held in the tapestry room since September.

Hastings residents were told they could get early access to book the latest release of tickets from Monday this week by calling the British Museum box office and providing proof of their address. But Dollimore said her constituents were left on hold for hours.

“Why do my constituents have to work on a glitchy phone line when online booking is clearly possible for others?” she asked.

“One person booked after two hours and 38 minutes in the queue, another said he was on hold for two and a half hours.

“If you can’t get access right for the people in the place this tapestry tells the story of, you need to sort that out before you start letting people jump the queue.”

Celebrities, businesspeople and politicians flocked to the museum on Saturday for a ball. The guest of honour, tech billionaire Igor Tulchinsky, posed next to the host, Rosanna Konarzewski, a communications executive who was wearing a sweeping ballgown made of a replica Bayeux tapestry. Sources in attendance said that while the general public have been banned from taking pictures of the embroidery, some ball guests managed to photograph it.

The Guardian revealed that another tech billionaire, Peter Thiel, was given a VIP tour of the embroidery before it opened to the public. Guests of the One Aldwych hotel are also allowed to view the tapestry if they book a £1,000-a-night room.

Dollimore said: “I had a constituent who waited for hours with her elderly parent who was in her 80s, and they were sent away because of a corporate event. They promised the people of 1066 Country would be able to get access to the tapestry, but seem to be prioritising these corporates.”

The MP has unsuccessfully tried to get tickets for herself and her family. “I have been trying since 10am to get through, and even I can’t,” she said.

The MP managed to secure access to the tapestry for schoolchildren across Hastings after lobbying the museum. “To be fair to the museum, that has been a success,” she said.

Members of the public faced online queues of up to nine hours when tickets went on sale for the first time this summer. There were reports of 40,000 people queueing by mid-morning, with that figure ballooning to almost 80,000 by mid-afternoon.

The 70-metre (229ft) tapestry, which is made of linen with embroidered images of events surrounding the Battle of Hastings in 1066, arrived in the UK in July for the first time in nearly 1,000 years.

Adult tickets cost £33 in peak hours and £27 at other times, compared with the €12 (£10) fee at the artwork’s home in Bayeux, Normandy.

A British Museum spokesperson said: “Demand for the Bayeux tapestry exhibition has been exceptionally high. In recognition of the area’s historic connection to the Battle of Hastings we agreed to offer residents the chance to secure tickets before their wider release.

“This offer is not guaranteed access – it is on a first-come, first-served basis in the same way tickets for the exhibition are on sale to our members and the public.

“All residents are still able to book tickets as part of the general sale on 21 October and will have further opportunities in the new year when the third tranche of tickets are released.”