Bank of England is loosely based on blackletter lettering from the Series F English twenty pound banknote introduced in 2007. The font also takes inspiration from German Kanzlei (Chancery) typefaces and the 17th century London calligrapher, John Ayres.

Bank of England includes Swash versions of all uppercase letters and ampersand, Alternates for nine lowercase letters and capital Z, sixteen ornamental flourishes, and Western European accented characters. A simplified St. Edward’s Crown (Elizabeth II’s coronation crown) appears at the Section (§) and PlusMinus (±) keystrokes (Windows Alt-0167 and Alt-0177).