Esoteric London

Farringdon Underground Station, Cowcross Street, London, EC1. Photo © Roger Dean 2012

Dickens’s Dictionary of London, An Unconventional Handbook – Charles Dickens Jr., 1882:

One peculiarity of the Underground line is apt to plunge the country traveller in some bewilderment. The usual terms of “up” and “down” are applied to the trains on this as on other lines, but instead of signifying trains to or from London, they signify trains to or from Aldgate. From Aldgate to Mansion House is, in Underground parlance, not “up” but “down,” and following this rule, trains from Hammersmith, &c., to the Mansion House are “down” trains also, and vice versa.