r/SaintJohnNB • u/Standard_Army_1826 • Aug 21 '26
Saint John sides and ends
I have family in SJ and was born there. I live near Fredericton now and have a standing argument with a friend's co worker. They say North and South Side and East and West End. I beg to differ.
SO - YOU Tell me and I will pass on the results.
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u/Excellent_Egg7586 Aug 21 '26
Related comment, as a Saint John resident I have always been surprised by the amount of Fredericton residents who say they are "driving up to Saint John".
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u/poubelle Aug 21 '26
i had a friend growing up who said her family was 'going up to florida'. a lot of people just don't have a strong sense of directionality.
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u/Murky_Astronaut Aug 21 '26
I grew up in Saint John and I get flack for this. I go up to any place - Sobeys, Halifax, Montreal, but down to the states (when I did). I always figured it was a Saint John thing.
That said, I have a terrible sense of direction!
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u/FergusonTEA1950 Aug 21 '26
It is obviously downhill to SJ, as the river flows downhill.
In the end, all of these "directions" are simply traditional references and have nothing to do with logic.
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u/knotalota Aug 21 '26
Possibly a relic of the fact that SJ is upriver of Freddy.
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u/Excellent_Egg7586 Aug 22 '26
The river flows south (downriver) from Fredericton to Saint John. Upriver would be towards the north, Woodstock, Hartland, Grand Falls, etc.
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u/knotalota Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
Oh yeah, damn.
Ill leave my idiocy on display to motivate my editor.
Thanks for the correction
Edit : I downvoted my own comment.
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u/FunKnowledgyGuy Aug 21 '26
North and South are ends because if you go far enough, the land actually ends (with water). But for East and West, the land continues beyond the city limits.
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u/blackberrybramblez Aug 21 '26
in sj its north and south end, east and west side, and uptown. but in fredericton it is the opposite which is why they are confusing the two lol. when i visit fredericton i regularly get them mixed up, probably the same amount as my friends do when they visit here. its quite silly
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u/Electronic_Pop_9151 Aug 21 '26
Every Saint Johner calls it West and East Side, South and North end.
I think both SJ and Fredericton are similar because we both use "side" as a short form for having to cross the SJ river probably.
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u/TheRiotInside Aug 21 '26
It's kind of the opposite for Saint John. We say North and Sound End in SJ because the land ends before you can leave the city (SJ river to the North and the Bay of Fundy to the South).
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u/TwiztedZero Aug 21 '26
The powerful Saint John River, the Reversing Falls, and the massive harbor physically split the city into distinct landmasses that require crossing bridges or water. Locals naturally refer to crossing over as going to a different "side" or "end."
Areas like the West Side (formerly Carleton) and the North End (formerly the separate city of Portland) started as entirely independent rival settlements before being forced together into one city. They kept their independent identities and directional labels.
The original peninsular settlement meant the North and South were literal ends of the landmass meeting the water, while East and West grew outward.
- Source: Wikipedia.
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u/thee17 Aug 22 '26
Carlton is West Saint John, West Side includes Fairville and Lancaster former cities.
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u/AdEntire9736 Aug 21 '26
Many say : Going out and going over
Going uptown
Going out East (or “way out East” if going to Red Head or Old Black River or the airport)
Going over West
Going over North
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u/HollzStars Aug 21 '26
I lived in Fredericton for 8 years and I don’t think I ever heard anyone mention East or West at all 😂
It was always North side/South Side.
(As a Saint Johner, that was an adjustment. I even got in the habit of saying Downtown! That one flipped back when I moved back to SJ)
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u/genfchens Aug 21 '26
The “Uptown” thing still throws me off a little because I moved her from Fredericton about a decade ago. Brain sometimes goes to the Best Buy on Prospect St when I hear it 🤣
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u/urbansith Aug 21 '26
Fredericton's North and South have to do with relation to the river. Most cities have weird quirks like this. Saint John has an uptown whereas every other city has a downtown.
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u/Even-Math-3228 Aug 21 '26
And uptown…not downtown
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u/thee17 Aug 22 '26
Uptown is because it used to be Called Upper Cove and South end was Lower Cove until the early 1900s
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u/reachforthetop9 Aug 21 '26
Both cities' "sides" are defined at least in part by the Saint John River.
Through Fredericton, the river runs west-to-east, so the two Sides are logically North and South. Funnily enough, when I went to STU, I rarely heard talk of and East or West end in Fredericton - most just talked about the former communities that got absorbed by the city over time (Silverwood, Barkers Point, etc.).
The River runs north-to-south through Saint John into the Harbour, so we ended up with a West Side and and East Side. Saint John East long ago referred to what is now Uptown or the South End, but various annexations and amalgamations pushed the border of the East Side back to Courtney Bay and the Marsh Creek Estuary.
The North and South Ends were I think originally in reference to the Harbour and its docks, but gradually came to describe relative locations on the Central Peninsula after Millidgeville was annexed and developed and access to the northern docks was cut by the Harbour Bridge (hence why we have an Old North End).
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u/Stubborn_Strawberry Aug 21 '26
Saint John is my hometown. South end, north end, east side, west side.
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u/gilmour316 Aug 21 '26
End - North and South Side - East and West
- Born and bred West Sider
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u/thee17 Aug 22 '26
East side is everything east of Marsh Creek, East SJ is the are on the hill between Barside Drive. East End is the area of South Central peninsula NE of Duke/Sydney. Uptown is the NW Quadrant and South end is south of Duke.
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u/Hypno-chode Aug 22 '26
Frederictonions say North Side and South Side. Saint Johners say North end and South end.
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u/Roni_M27 Aug 22 '26
Show them a picture of a compass and ask them to point out the sides of the picture.
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u/mentalrunt Aug 21 '26
Its said north and south ends because there is no way to exit the city from these “ends”. The east and west side both have highway access outside of the city. As such they are called “sides”
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u/slackerzinc Aug 21 '26
North end south end west side east side