The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street

“The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street” is a sobriquet for the Bank of England, commonly traced to a famous political caricature by the satirist James Gillray. In his 1797 print, made amid wartime financial strain and the Bank Restriction period (when cash payments were suspended), Gillray depicts Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger courting or pressuring an elderly woman symbolizing the Bank—often shown guarding her coffers. The image crystallized public anxieties about government borrowing and the Bank’s role in financing the state, and the phrase endured as a shorthand for the institution in British political and financial commentary.

As a metaphor, the “Old Lady” personifies the Bank of England as venerable, cautious, and protective of her reserves—an institution with long memory and conservative instincts. The domestic, gendered figure also invites satire: she can be portrayed as prudish, vulnerable to political manipulation, or stubbornly resistant to ministerial demands. “Threadneedle Street” anchors the personification in a specific London location, turning an abstract financial authority into a character in a political drama. The phrase’s longevity reflects how effectively caricature can shape public language about economic power and state finance.