Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When many Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they imagine a vibrant, enchanting, and verdant campus bustling with wildlife and plants that aren’t often found at our other campuses such as South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are correct – every depiction of Silwood Park holds true!
As a member of this lesser-known community within Imperial, I wish to showcase the student life, activities, and community at our natural parkland campus located in Ascot, Berkshire.
A glimpse into Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor laboratory, covering 77 hectares and featuring ecosystems like freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” woodland, and expansive grasslands. A quick search on iNaturalist, a platform for documenting and sharing biodiversity observations with a social network of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, while a further search on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been identified to date.
Notably, Silwood Park also hosts numerous extensive field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being two of the more prominent studies conducted on-site.
Campus life at Silwood Park
The campus predominantly accommodates postgraduate students passionate about projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us actively participate in various clubs based at Silwood Park. Key examples include:
- Chicken Club – who care for the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – who meet regularly to discuss selections from their reading lists
- Gardening Club – who oversee the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – who arrange nature walks and conservation-focused activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the broader Imperial student body, many of us are also members and frequently engage in activities of clubs located in South Kensington!
Informally, we also engage in sports clubs featuring games like badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), held either on the campus’s multi-use games arena (MUGA) or at indoor sports facilities in nearby towns such as Bracknell or Ascot.
Besides club activities and classes, we host numerous community-driven events on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council that organizes and facilitates these events to promote a lively and dynamic student life! Recently, we held the Silwood language exchange, where our largely international community came together to share languages and cultures over several weeks, alongside our annual Chinese New Year celebration at the year’s beginning, where everyone united to make dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. We’ve also seen community-organized parties celebrating various global festivals (like Carnival) as well as those held simply for the joy of celebration.
However, my favorite campus event remains the weekly pub quiz organized by our student community. It’s customary in Silwood culture that the quiz losers must prepare the next one, and I can confidently state that I hold the record for the highest number of quizzes set this year. Despite my frequent losses due to inadequate knowledge of trivia, there’s always enjoyable company and a good pint of beer to be had.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s a 30-minute walk from the lively atmosphere of civilization (such as the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never felt dull or deficient. Alongside the countless events and activities, we benefit from a friendly and inclusive community made up of students from all corners of the globe. All of us cherish nature.