Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet specializing in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they conjure images of a verdant, enchanting, and green campus bustling with wildlife and plants seldom observed at other locations like South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are correct—every depiction of Silwood Park holds true!
As a member of this relatively unknown community at Imperial, I wish to shine a light on the student experience, activities, and community in our natural parkland campus located in Ascot, Berkshire.
An overview of Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s open-air laboratory, covering 77 hectares and boasting habitats such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” woodland, and expansive grasslands. A simple query on iNaturalist, an application designed for mapping and sharing biodiversity observations globally within a network of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, and an additional check on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been identified thus far.
Interestingly, Silwood Park is also the venue for numerous long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being two of the more prominent studies undertaken on-site.
Life as a student at Silwood Park
The campus primarily caters to postgraduate students focused on projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us engage in various clubs based at Silwood Park. Prominent examples include:
- Chicken Club – who care for the chickens raised behind our dormitories
- Book Club – who convene regularly to talk about books from their reading lists
- Gardening Club – who oversee the plots in our community garden
- Conservation Club – who coordinate nature walks and environmentally focused activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the larger Imperial student body, many of us also take part in activities organized by clubs in South Kensington!
Additionally, we have informal clubs that participate in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), utilizing either the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or indoor sports facilities in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
In addition to club activities and academic lessons, we host a variety of community-led events on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council that organizes and facilitates these events to maintain a lively and engaging student life! In recent months, we’ve held a Silwood language exchange, which brought our largely international community together to exchange languages and cultures over several weeks, and we celebrated our annual Chinese New Year at the beginning of the year, where everyone gathered to make dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. Community-organized parties celebrating various global events (such as Carnival) or just for the joy of partying have also taken place.
However, my favorite event on campus must be the weekly pub quiz, arranged by our student community. It’s ingrained in Silwood culture that the quiz losers are responsible for setting the next quiz, and I can proudly claim the record for the most pub quizzes organized this year. Despite suffering through many defeats in these trivia contests due to my lacking general knowledge, there’s always enjoyable moments to share with great friends and a fine pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Though it’s a 30-minute stroll from the lively atmosphere of the nearest civilization (e.g., the train station and the closest village), life at Silwood Park has never felt boring or deficient. Beyond the myriad of events and activities, we have a friendly and inclusive community made up of students from all corners of the globe. All of us cherish nature, adore our stunning campus grounds, and more importantly,