Written by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When most Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they imagine a lush, enigmatic, and green campus filled with wildlife and plants rarely found on other campuses such as South Kensington or White City. In many ways, they are correct – every depiction of Silwood Park is truthful!
As a voice for this lesser-known community within Imperial, I would like to showcase the student life, activities, and camaraderie at our natural parkland campus in Ascot, Berkshire.
Getting to Know Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor research facility, covering 77 hectares and featuring ecosystems such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and open grasslands. A brief search on iNaturalist, an application for mapping and sharing biodiversity observations globally within a social network of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been noted on campus, with an additional check on eBird indicating that 111 bird species have been identified on campus to date.
Moreover, Silwood Park also hosts a variety of long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being two of the more prominent studies carried out on-site.
Life as a Student at Silwood Park
The campus mainly accommodates postgraduate students keen on projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Most of us are involved in various clubs based at Silwood Park. Some noteworthy examples include:
- Chicken Club – tending to the chickens raised behind our student accommodations
- Book Club – routinely meeting to discuss interesting reads
- Gardening Club – overseeing the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – arranging nature walks and conservation-oriented activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As active members of the broader Imperial student body, many of us also engage in activities of clubs based in South Kensington!
Casually, we have groups involved in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), taking place either on the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or at indoor sports facilities in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Alongside club activities and classes, we host various community-driven events on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council, which organizes and facilitates these events to maintain a lively and engaging student life! Recently, we held the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community exchanged languages and cultures over several weeks, and we celebrated our annual Chinese New Year at the start of the year, making dumplings and couplets to usher in the new lunar year. We’ve also hosted community-organized gatherings celebrating global events (like Carnival) or simply for the joy of festivities.
Nonetheless, my favorite campus event is the weekly pub quiz, conducted by our student community. It’s a tradition at Silwood that the team losing the pub quiz has to host the next one, and I can proudly declare that I have set the most pub quizzes this year. Despite my repeated defeats in pub quizzes due to my limited general knowledge, there’s always great fun to be had with wonderful company and a good pint of beer.
Silwood Park: My Second Home
Although it is a 30-minute stroll from the lively atmosphere of civilization (e.g., the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never felt dull or wanting. Alongside numerous events and activities, we enjoy a friendly and inviting community made up of students from around the globe. We all appreciate nature, treasure our beautiful campus surroundings, and, more importantly, enjoy one another’s company. We’re a close-knit community that delights in stargazing during the winter chill on the open field beside our bar, observing the birds and mammals that