Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they imagine a verdant, enigmatic, and green campus brimming with wildlife and vegetation that are rarely found at other campuses like South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are correct – every depiction of Silwood Park holds true!
As a member of this lesser-known enclave at Imperial, I would like to spotlight the student experience, activities, and community at our natural parkland campus located in Ascot, Berkshire.
An overview of Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor research facility, covering 77 hectares and encompassing ecosystems like freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” woodland, and expansive grasslands. A brief exploration on iNaturalist, an application for cataloging and sharing biodiversity observations globally within a community of naturalists, shows that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, and an additional search on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have so far been identified on campus.
What’s particularly fascinating is that Silwood Park hosts numerous long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being among the more recognized projects carried out on-site.
Student experience at Silwood Park
The campus primarily accommodates postgraduate students focused on projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us actively engage in various clubs based at Silwood Park. Some notable examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for caring for the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – convening regularly to discuss books of interest from their reading list
- Gardening Club – overseeing the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – organizing nature walks and conservation-centric activities for the students at Silwood Park Campus.
Being part of the broader Imperial student body, many of us are also members and regularly join activities of clubs based in South Kensington!
Casually, we also have clubs that participate in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), which take place either on the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or in the indoor sports facilities located in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Alongside club activities and classes, numerous community-led events occur on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council that organizes and facilitates such events to ensure a lively and dynamic student life! Recently, we’ve hosted the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community gathered to share languages and cultures over a few weeks, and we celebrated our annual Chinese New Year at the start of the year, where everyone united to make dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. We’ve also enjoyed community-organized parties celebrating various global events (like Carnival) or simply gatherings held for the sake of enjoyment.
My favorite campus event, however, has to be the weekly pub quiz, arranged by our student community. It’s a Silwood tradition that the losers of the pub quiz are tasked with setting the next one, and I can proudly claim the highest number of pub quizzes organized this year. Despite losing countless pub quizzes due to my poor grasp of general trivia, there’s always plenty of enjoyment to be had with great company and a good pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s situated a 30-minute walk from the lively atmosphere of civilization (such as the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never seemed boring or lacking. In addition to the myriad of events and activities, we enjoy a warm and welcoming community made up of students from around the globe.