Written by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When many Imperial students think about Silwood Park, they imagine a lush, enigmatic, and green campus filled with wildlife and vegetation seldom encountered at other locations like South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they’re right – each representation of Silwood Park holds true!
As a representative of this lesser-known aspect of Imperial, I want to emphasize the student experience, activities, and community at our natural parkland facility in Ascot, Berkshire.
Presenting Silwood Park
Silwood Park functions as Imperial’s outdoor laboratory, covering 77 hectares and encompassing habitats such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and expansive grasslands. A quick check on iNaturalist, an application for mapping and sharing biodiversity observations worldwide with an online network of naturalists, indicates that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, and an additional search on eBird confirms that 111 bird species have been noted on campus thus far.
More intriguingly, Silwood Park serves as the location for several long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being among the more esteemed projects executed on-site.
Student Experience at Silwood Park
The campus mainly accommodates postgraduate students focused on projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Most of us are involved in various clubs based in Silwood Park. Some notable examples include:
- Chicken Club – looking after chickens located behind our residence halls
- Book Club – meeting regularly to discuss intriguing books
- Gardening Club – overseeing the plots in our community garden
- Conservation Club – arranging nature walks and conservation initiatives for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As members of the broader Imperial student community, many of us also join and actively engage in clubs based in South Kensington!
Casually, we also have clubs participating in sports like badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), utilizing either the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or indoor sports facilities in nearby towns such as Bracknell or Ascot.
In addition to club activities and academic lessons, numerous community-led events occur on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council that organizes and facilitates these events, ensuring a lively and dynamic student life! In recent months, we held the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community shared languages and cultures over several weeks, and our annual Chinese New Year celebration at the beginning of the year, where everyone united to create dumplings and couplets to usher in the new lunar year. We’ve also enjoyed community-organized gatherings celebrating global events (like Carnival) or simply for the joy of socializing.
However, my favorite event on campus is the weekly pub quiz, organized by our student community. It’s a tradition at Silwood that the team losing the pub quiz sets up the next one, and I can proudly claim to have set the most quizzes this year. Despite having lost many pub quizzes due to my limited general knowledge, there’s always great enjoyment with wonderful company and a good pint of beer.
Silwood Park: My Home Away from Home
Even though it’s 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 seemed dull or lacking. Along with numerous events and activities, we enjoy a warm and inviting community made up of students from across the globe. We all appreciate nature, our stunning campus grounds, and, most importantly, each other’s companionship. We’re a close-knit community that loves stargazing in the winter chill in the open field beside our bar, observing the birds and mammals that grace