Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet focusing on Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation
When many Imperial scholars envision Silwood Park, they conjure up a verdant, enigmatic green campus teeming with flora and fauna rarely encountered on other campuses like South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are correct – and every depiction of Silwood Park holds true!
As a voice for this lesser-known segment of the Imperial community, I aim to showcase the student experience, activities, and community at our natural parkland campus situated in Ascot, Berkshire.
Introducing Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor laboratory, spanning 77 hectares and featuring habitats such as freshwater streams, lakes, a so-called “ancient” forest, and open fields. A quick search on iNaturalist, an app that allows users to map and share biodiversity observations globally within a social network of naturalists, reveals that a grand total of 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, while an additional search on eBird shows that 111 species of birds have been observed on campus thus far.
Notably, Silwood Park also hosts numerous long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being two of the more prominent studies conducted on-site.
The student experience at Silwood Park
The campus primarily accommodates postgraduate students engaged in projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Most of us are involved in various clubs based at Silwood Park. Some noteworthy examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for the care of the chickens kept behind our residence halls
- Book Club – which meets regularly to discuss selections from their reading list
- Gardening Club – overseeing the allotments within our community garden
- Conservation Club – which organizes nature walks and conservation-related activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
Being a part of the broader Imperial student community, many of us are also members of and actively join in activities from clubs based in South Kensington!
Additionally, we have informal clubs that engage in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), taking place either on the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or at indoor sports facilities in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Alongside club activities and classes, there are many community-led events hosted on campus. Silwood Park boasts its own student council that organizes and supports such events to ensure a lively and thrilling student experience! Over the past months, we’ve held the Silwood language exchange, wherein our predominantly international community came together to share languages and cultures over several weeks, along with our annual Chinese New Year celebration at the beginning of the year, where everyone collaborated to make dumplings and couplets to welcome the start of a new lunar year. We’ve also celebrated community-organized parties for various global festivities (like Carnival) and gatherings simply for the joy of partying.
However, my absolute favorite campus event must be the weekly pub quiz, coordinated by our student community. It’s part of the Silwood tradition that those who lose the quiz must host the next one, and I can proudly state that I hold the record for the most pub quizzes organized this year. Despite my frequent defeats in quizzes due to my limited general knowledge, the camaraderie with great friends and a delightful pint of beer always guarantees an enjoyable time.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it is situated a 30-minute walk from the lively buzz of civilization (e.g., the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never felt ordinary or