On: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “...

[mhandley]

In the UK, up and down are terms used by the railways. The up line generally heads towards a big city (London for much of the UK), and down heads away. Seems like this is the case in some other countries too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_directions

To some extent the terminology has crept into general use. I grew up just north of London, but we always went up to London.