The assumption that going North should mean going up and going South should mean going down is pretty unsustainable, when you think of it. And it isn't in fact sustained in normal usage.

For example, in Harlow we'd never talk about "going down to London".
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Anyone feel like giving a link to the original broadside words from 1889? I don't mean because they should be considered sacrosanct - original broadsides almost invariably get improved in oral transmission - but it'd be interesting to read them.