up/down to London

[Lynne Murphy]

Following up on my last note on this...

The info I had re "it's always 'down to London'" was from native Londoners
who now live in Brighton (50 miles due south of London).

But I just polled my class.  The younger ones said it's up or down
depending on whether you're coming from north or south, respectively.  One
exception was a younger student who said she always says "down to London"
but that this is a habit because she used to live north of London.  (By
'younger' students I mean traditional undergraduate age.)

The one student present who was older (in his 50s) said that it's always
'up to London' because the train lines to London are the 'up lines'.
Here's a little explanation from
<http://www.malmesbury-memories.co.uk/01.html>:

'Split level Tunnels
The famous twin-bore two level tunnels are somewhere north of Bristol, and
are like two see-saws side by side, the down line enters its tunnel with
the track being at a higher level than the up line and further south it
exits at a lower level than the up line, very strange. Apparently it is a
result of the doubling of the old B & SWU line where a second tunnel was
constructed to suit a new shallower track gradient suitable for the
increased coal traffic from South Wales. In theory all lines towards London
are called up lines and all lines away from London are called down lines. '

Incidentally, 'town' generally means London.  If I say 'I have to be in
town next week', it means I'm going to London.  If I want to talk about
going into Brighton from its outskirts I'd have to say something like "the
town centre".  I assume that this meaning of 'town' is still in use by
people who live within commuting distance of London, but is probably not so
used by those further away.

Lynne


Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics

Department of Linguistics and English Language
Arts B133
University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton BN1 9QN
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