Upstate/downstate

[Michael Quinion]

> What I've learnt here is that it's always 'down to London'.  I live
> south of London, and you go down to London from here (over the Downs,
> as a matter of fact).  There's more than one song with "down to London
> town" in it.  In practice, people say both.

Interesting. I was brought up in the area and worked in Brighton for
some years (for the then new local radio station, in the late 1960s).
At that time you always went up to London (or up to town, this always
being taken to mean London).

I'd also agree with Sagehen that in the my day up trains always went
to the nearest big town, which for southest England meant London. Has
one of these odd linguistic inversions taken place in the interim?

The rule doesn't (or didn't) apply to those travelling to London from
much further away, say Manchester or Edinburgh. Then you followed the
map convention and went down to London.

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <TheEditor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>