
Flogsta is a neighbourhood in the west part of the
Swedish city of
Uppsala
Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...
. Most of its inhabitants are students attending
Uppsala University
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
The university rose to significance durin ...
or the
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, or Swedish Agricultural University (Swedish: ''Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet'') (SLU) is a university in Sweden. Although its head office is located in Ultuna, Uppsala, the university has several ...
.
Location
The neighbourhood is located approximately 2.8 kilometres (about 4 km by road) west of the Uppsala city centre. There are bus connections and bicycle tracks connecting Flogsta to different parts of the town.
[Flogsta]
, Uppsala University
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
The university rose to significance durin ...
Housing Office
History
The suburb was known as "Flogstoghum" in the Early Middle Ages and was a part of the Church parish of Uppsala. However, it was generally thought to be uninhabited until the late 16th century, when it became part of a 'Kronopark' or "Crown Lands", a semi-forested area owned directly by the Government and used for Government purposes. Until the 1840s, Flogsta was a small village and was not included within the City Limits of Uppsala. Indeed, until 1869, the city boundary of
Uppsala
Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...
to the West ended at Krongatan, a couple of miles to the west of the Castle, to Ekeby in 1898 and to Flogsta in 1912. Large scale habitation and concrete building started only in the 1910s as accommodation for workers in various industries in Central Uppsala, and until the 1920s there were no municipal services in Flogsta. In the 1920s, the first suburban houses came up in Flogsta as residences of white collar workers who worked in the city but wished to live close to the countryside. In the 1950s much of the suburb was earmarked for the
Million Programme
The Million Programme ( sv, Miljonprogrammet) was an ambitious public housing program implemented in Sweden between 1965 and 1974 by the governing Swedish Social Democratic Party to ensure the availability of affordable, high quality housing ...
as student housing, and hence the suburb got its present characteristic as a densely populated "concrete block" student suburb only by the end of the 1960s.
Flogsta scream
Every evening at approximately 22:00, the "Flogsta scream" may be heard, when students individually or collectively shout from windows, balconies and rooftops.
[Swedish students' howls echo across the world]
, '' The Local'' of Sweden, 13 January 2013 According to
Uppsala University
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
The university rose to significance durin ...
, the collective screaming acts as "a much-needed safety valve" and "a cry of angst" for students stressed by the demands of university life.
The phenomenon also occurs in other university towns and campuses in Sweden, such as
Lund,
Linköping
Linköping () is a city in southern Sweden, with around 105,000 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Chu ...
and the Lappkärrsberget student residence area in
Stockholm among others.
[ It is known as '']Elvavrålet Elvavrålet (Swedish: the eleven roar) is a student tradition where students at universities and colleges at a certain time every night in student residential areas (22:00 or 23:00, on Lappkärrsberget only Tuesdays) open their windows, go out onto ...
'' (''the Eleven Scream'') in Swedish. This phenomenon also inspired Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
citizens to shout from their windows every night during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.
Flogsta rooftops
The legendary rooftops of the Flogsta high-rises used to be the heart of student social life and the neighbourhood's identity. Closed down indefinitely in 2015, on recommendations of the local authorities, sturdy metal fencing was installed to obstruct access.
References
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Uppsala
Geography of Uppsala County
Neighbourhoods of Uppsala
Student quarters
Student culture
Psychological stress
Anxiety