Up north, down south

[BrandonsMummy]

ExP tends to drive me nuts by telling me that he'll "pop up to see us" (he lives slightly north of DS and myself).

Similarly when I go to visit my parents in York (I live in Brighton) he asks if I "had a good time down in York."

My sisters in York are just as bad: "When are you next coming down?" and "When can we come up to see you?" It's not as though they always use up or always use down, they use both but always in the wrong context!

I have always let this go as I'm quite good at keeping the pedant within on a tight leash, however I feel the need to vent on here as ExP has just sent me a text to tell me that he is "going up to the south of France for a week."

Does anyone else hear this type of thing and if so does it drive you crazy?
Perhaps I've had my altas upside down all these years.

or maybe it's your atlas that's upside down

and, yes. That would bug me.

i live near brighton and i am originally from up north.

my kids (16 & 20) often mix this up by saying "are you going down to oldham soon?"

i always correct them up "Up to oldham - if i went down to anywhere i;d hit the bloody sea!" drives me nuts

i might as well chip in as my eyes are just about open.
I was taught in my english lessons that you go up to the capital,i,e London and if you go from London to Manchester, you go down to Manchester.
It has nothing to do with maps ,it is to do with the capital of the country FWIW

night night zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I hate this too, I live in Newcastle and unless you're scottish you're not coming down to see me.

just had a look in ask jeeves and i am now going to thrash my teacher because this is in Wiki info when i asked the question:

Do you go up to the capital?

Not always. It depends if the capital city is geographically north or south of your location. If it were south, you would use 'down' instead of 'up.'

so there it is ,in a nutshell.
def going to get some shut eye now
)_@
)

Train lines always used to go UP to London.

My mum and dad went to university in Cambridge and I think would always talk of going up to Cambridge. My mum came from Liverpool so it was definitely "down" really.

Cambridge is another special rule, university people always go up to Cambridge and then if they are thrown out of the university they are "sent down".

yes its down to cambridge unless its our new capital
lol dad

None of it matters, because North does not equal Up and South does not equal Down: they are not geographical terms. When you travel from Land's End to John O'Groats, you are no actually going up anywhere, because there is no vertical ascent. For the sake of convenience, many of us choose to stalk about "up north" or "down south", but there is no good reason to, and therefore there is no good reason to criticise those who invert those conventions.

I think you'll find I live oop North (but you're right about the rest)

I will permit those who hold their map of the British Isles upside down, to reverse the terms, but otherwise it is daft.

And when I go South I feel a sense of going downhill too