Downstairs UpstairsˌUpstairs, ˈDownstairs a British television programme of the 1970s, about a rich family and their servants who live in London in the early 1900s. It shows the two different worlds of the upper-class people who live ‘upstairs’ in the main part of the house, and of their servants who live and work in the lower part of the house. People in the UK sometimes use this phrase when comparing the different lives of rich and poor people Some economists foresee a return to the Upstairs, Downstairs society of Victorian times.