Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet specializing in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they imagine a verdant, enigmatic, and lush campus brimming with flora and fauna that are seldom encountered at other campuses such as South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are accurate – every portrayal of Silwood Park holds true!
As a member of this lesser-known community at Imperial, I wish to shine a light on 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 open-air laboratory, encompassing 77 hectares of land and featuring ecosystems such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and expansive grasslands. A quick search on iNaturalist, an application where users can record and share biodiversity observations globally within a social network of naturalists, reveals that a total of 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, while a further exploration on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been observed on campus to date.
Additionally, Silwood Park hosts a variety of long-term field research initiatives, including the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project, two of the more prominent studies conducted on-site.
Student experience at Silwood Park
The campus primarily accommodates postgraduate students engaged in ecology, conservation, and evolution projects. Many of us participate in various clubs stationed at Silwood Park. Notable examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for caring for the chickens raised behind our residences
- Book Club – which meets regularly to discuss fascinating reads from their reading lists
- Gardening Club – which oversees the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – which arranges nature walks and conservation-oriented activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the wider Imperial student body, many of us are also members of and actively engage in activities of clubs based in South Kensington!
Informally, we have clubs that partake in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (which happens to be my personal favorite!), held either at the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or at indoor sports facilities located in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Apart from club activities and classes, numerous community-led events occur on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council that organizes and facilitates these activities to ensure a vibrant and exciting student life! In recent months, we conducted the Silwood language exchange, where our diverse international community united to share languages and cultures over several weeks, and we also celebrated our annual Chinese New Year at the year’s start, gathering to make dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. We’ve also had community-organized parties celebrating various global festivities (like Carnival) or simply parties for the joy of gathering.
However, my favorite campus event must be the weekly pub quiz, hosted by our student community. It’s part of Silwood culture that the quiz losers are responsible for organizing the next one, and I can proudly claim the top number of pub quizzes arranged this year. Even though I have lost many pub quizzes due to my limited general trivia knowledge, there’s always great enjoyment to be found with good company and a good pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s a 30-minute stroll from the lively atmosphere of town (e.g., the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never seemed dull or lacking.