Visitors are able to wander among 37 silver birch trees, creating a canopy across the Museum’s forecourt, and discover carefully curated plants weaving through the colonnade of the British Museum. Tapestry of trees marks the beginning of the Museum’s public programme tied to the Tapestry, which will open in September.
The makers of the Bayeux Tapestry drew extensively from the natural world. Throughout the Tapestry, trees act as a storytelling device, used to separate scenes and mark pivotal moments. The nine linen panels that make up the Tapestry are woven from flax fibres, while the woollen embroidery threads that bring the story to life are coloured with natural plant dyes.
The temporary installation is intended to immerse visitors in Andy Sturgeon’s artistic impression of the natural world of the Bayeux Tapestry, evoking a medieval woodland and the landscape of East Sussex at the time of the Battle of Hastings – the key event of the Tapestry – took place nearly 1,000 years ago.
Inspired by art and architecture, Andy Sturgeon’s work explores the relationship between plants and architecture and the wider landscape. His practice has created a space where garden design and landscape architecture intersect and it thrives on a huge variety of projects across many settings, climates and regions. Andy has won nine RHS Gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show and three ‘Best in Show’ awards along with a raft of awards from around the world.
Andy Sturgeon said: ‘Inspired by the location of many of the events depicted in the Tapestry, I wanted to bring an essence of the wooded Sussex countryside to central London. By placing dozens of trees outside the Museum, it evokes a woodland that can be enjoyed by visitors.
The installation is open to the public until Tuesday 2 June ahead of the historic loan of the Tapestry to the British Museum from 10 September 2026.