Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When most students from Imperial think about Silwood Park, they picture a vibrant, enchanting, and verdant campus filled with wildlife and plants seldom encountered at other locations like South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are correct – and every depiction of Silwood Park holds true!
As a member of this lesser-known sector of Imperial, I wish to underscore the student experience, activities, and sense of community within our natural parkland campus in Ascot, Berkshire.
A glimpse of Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor laboratory, covering 77 hectares and encompassing habitats such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and expansive grasslands. A quick search on iNaturalist, an app for documenting and sharing biodiversity observations globally with an online community of naturalists, shows that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, and a further search on eBird indicates 111 bird species have been identified so far.
Most notably, Silwood Park is home to several long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being two prominent projects undertaken on-site.
Student experience at Silwood Park
The campus caters mainly to postgraduate students engaged in projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us belong to various clubs based at Silwood Park. Some prominent examples include:
- Chicken Club – which tends to the chickens raised behind our residences
- Book Club – which regularly meets to discuss interesting reads
- Gardening Club – which oversees the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – which arranges nature walks and conservation-centric activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the broader Imperial student body, many of us also take part in activities of clubs located in South Kensington!
On an informal level, we have clubs that engage in sports like badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), based either on the multi-use games area (MUGA) on campus or at indoor sports facilities in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Beyond club activities and classes, we host numerous community-led events on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council that organizes and supports such activities to provide a lively and dynamic student life! Recently, we’ve had the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community exchanged languages and cultures over several weeks, and our yearly Chinese New Year celebration at the start of the year, where we made dumplings and couplets to usher in the new lunar year. We’ve also hosted community-organized parties celebrating global events (like Carnival), or gatherings held simply for the sake of celebration.
However, my favorite campus event must be the weekly pub quiz, organized by our student community. It’s become part of Silwood culture that the losers of the pub quiz arrange the next one, and I can proudly claim the highest number of pub quizzes set this year. Despite losing numerous pub quizzes due to my lack of general trivia knowledge, there’s always a great time to be had with excellent company and a fine pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s a 30-minute walk from the bustling life of civilization (e.g., the train station and the closest village), life at Silwood Park has never seemed dull or deficient. Along with countless events and activities, we benefit from a warm and inviting community made up of students from all corners of the globe. We all share a passion for nature, our stunning campus grounds, and, more importantly, relish each other’s company. We’re a close-knit community that enjoys stargazing in the winter chill on the open field beside our bar.