Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they conjure up an enchanting, verdant campus brimming with wildlife and vegetation not typically encountered at other locations like South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they’re correct – every depiction of Silwood Park holds true!
As a representative of this lesser-known segment of Imperial, I aim to showcase the student life, activities, and community within our natural parkland campus in Ascot, Berkshire.
Overview of Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor laboratory, covering 77 hectares and featuring habitats such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and open grasslands. A quick search on iNaturalist, an application dedicated to mapping and sharing biodiversity insights globally alongside a network of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, while an additional query on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been noted on campus to date.
More intriguingly, Silwood Park is also home to numerous long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being among the more prominent studies conducted here.
Life as a Student at Silwood Park
The campus primarily hosts postgraduate students keen on projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Most of us are involved in various clubs situated at Silwood Park. Some notable examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for caring for the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – who meet regularly to discuss their reading selections
- Gardening Club – who oversee the allotments in our communal garden
- Conservation Club – who arrange nature walks and conservation-focused activities for the students at Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the broader Imperial student community, many of us are also members and actively engage in the events of clubs based in South Kensington!
Casually, we have clubs that partake 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 the indoor sports facilities in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Aside from club activities and classes, we have numerous community-driven events occurring on campus. Silwood Park boasts its own student council that orchestrates and manages these events to promote a lively and exhilarating student life! Recently, we hosted the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community united to share languages and cultures over several weeks, and we also celebrated our annual Chinese New Year at the start of the year, making dumplings and couplets to welcome in the new lunar year. Additionally, we have seen community-organized parties commemorating global celebrations (like Carnival), or parties organized purely out of enthusiasm for festivities.
However, my favorite campus event has to be the weekly pub quiz, run by our student community. It’s a tradition at Silwood that the losing teams of the pub quiz are responsible for setting the next one, and I can proudly note that I’ve initiated the highest number of pub quizzes this year. Although I have lost many pub quizzes due to my lackluster general trivia knowledge, there’s always a great time to be had with good friends and a refreshing pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s a 30-minute stroll from the lively atmosphere of civilization (for instance, the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never felt dull or inadequate. Beyond the array of events and activities, we enjoy a friendly and inclusive community made up of students from various corners of the globe. We all cherish nature, our stunning