Composed by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they think of a verdant, enigmatic, and green campus bustling with wildlife and flora not typically encountered at other campuses like South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are correct – every depiction of Silwood Park holds true!
As a spokesperson for this lesser-known enclave at Imperial, I wish to emphasize the student experience, activities, and community within our natural parkland campus in Ascot, Berkshire.
Introducing Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor laboratory, covering 77 hectares with ecosystems such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and expansive grasslands. A brief search on iNaturalist, an application used for mapping and sharing global biodiversity observations within an online community of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, while a further inquiry on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been noted on campus thus far.
Additionally, Silwood Park is the venue for numerous long-term field research initiatives, including the well-known Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project.
Life of Students at Silwood Park
The campus predominantly hosts postgraduate students focused on ecology, conservation, and evolution-related projects. Most of us are involved in several clubs based at Silwood Park. Noteworthy examples include:
- Chicken Club – which takes care of the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – which meets regularly to discuss various interesting books
- Gardening Club – which tends to the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – which organizes nature walks and conservation-minded activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the wider Imperial student community, many of us also engage in the activities of clubs based in South Kensington!
Informally, we also hold clubs that indulge in sports like badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), which take place either on the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or in indoor sports facilities located in nearby towns such as Bracknell or Ascot.
Alongside club activities and classes, we host many community-led events on campus. Silwood Park boasts its own student council that organizes and facilitates such events to ensure a lively and exciting student experience! In recent months, we’ve participated in the Silwood language exchange, where our largely international community united to share languages and cultures over several weeks, and our annual Chinese New Year celebration at the beginning of the year, where everyone came together to create dumplings and couplets to ring in the new lunar year. We’ve also enjoyed community-organized parties celebrating global events (such as Carnival), or gatherings simply for the joy of celebration.
However, my favorite campus event has to be the weekly pub quiz, planned by our student community. It is a Silwood custom that those who lose the pub quiz must organize the next one, and I can proudly claim the highest number of pub quizzes arranged this year. Even though I’ve lost numerous pub quizzes due to my limited general trivia knowledge, there’s always great enjoyment to be found with wonderful company and a good pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s a 30-minute walk from the lively atmosphere of civilization (e.g., the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never felt monotonous or unexciting. Aside from the multitude of events and activities, we have a friendly and welcoming community comprised of students from around the globe. All of us appreciate nature, cherish our beautiful campus grounds, and