Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet specializing in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation
When most students from Imperial envision Silwood Park, they picture a vibrant, enigmatic, and green campus bustling with diverse wildlife and flora that are rarely found on other campuses like South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they’re correct – every depiction of Silwood Park is indeed true!
As a member of this less-familiar community at Imperial, I would like to bring attention to the student experience, activities, and community at our natural parkland campus located in Ascot, Berkshire.
Overview of 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 meadows. A quick query on iNaturalist, an application designed for mapping and sharing biodiversity observations worldwide within an online community of naturalists, indicates that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus. Further exploration on eBird uncovers that 111 bird species have been documented on the premises thus far.
Notably, Silwood Park is also a hub for several long-term field research initiatives, with Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being among the more recognized studies carried out on-site.
Life as a student at Silwood Park
The campus primarily accommodates postgraduate students interested in pursuits related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us partake in various clubs headquartered at Silwood Park. Prominent examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for caring for the chickens raised behind our residential halls
- Book Club – who convene regularly to discuss books of interest from their reading lists
- Gardening Club – tasked with maintaining the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – who coordinate nature walks and environmental activities for students at Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the broader Imperial student community, many of us are also members and actively engage in clubs based in South Kensington!
Casually, we have clubs that participate in sports like badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), held either on the multi-use games area (MUGA) on campus or in indoor sports facilities located in nearby towns such as Bracknell or Ascot.
Alongside club activities and classes, a variety of community-driven events are hosted on campus. Silwood Park boasts its own student council that organizes and facilitates these activities to maintain a dynamic and engaging student life! Recently, we’ve held the Silwood language exchange, where our largely international community united to share our languages and cultures over several weeks. We also celebrated our annual Chinese New Year festivities at the start of the year, where everyone came together to prepare dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. Moreover, we’ve had community-organized parties celebrating various global festivities (like Carnival) or simply gatherings organized for the joy of celebration.
However, my favorite campus activity must be the weekly pub quiz, organized by our student community. It’s a part of Silwood culture that the team losing the pub quiz is responsible for organizing the next one, and I can proudly state that I have hosted the most pub quizzes this year. Despite losing several quizzes owing to my limited general knowledge, there’s always a good time to be had with great company and a refreshing pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s situated a 30-minute walk from the energetic atmosphere of civilization (for instance, the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never felt dull or unfulfilling. Beyond the numerous events and activities, we have a friendly and inclusive community consisting of students from around the globe. All of us