Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When many Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they imagine a verdant, enchanting, and green campus brimming with wildlife and plants seldom found at other locations such as South Kensington or White City. In several respects, they’re correct – every depiction of Silwood Park holds true!
As a spokesperson for this lesser-known sector at Imperial, I would like to emphasize the student experience, activities, and community at our ecological parkland campus in Ascot, Berkshire.
An overview of Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor research facility, covering 77 hectares and featuring habitats such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” woodland, and expansive grasslands. A quick search on iNaturalist, an application where you can document and share biodiversity observations globally with an online community of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, with an additional search on eBird showing that 111 bird species have been documented thus far.
Interestingly, Silwood Park is also the location for 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.
Student engagement at Silwood Park
The campus mainly accommodates postgraduate students engaged in projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us belong to various clubs based at Silwood Park. Noteworthy examples include:
- Chicken Club – who take care of the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – who regularly meet to discuss interesting literature
- Gardening Club – who oversee the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – who arrange nature walks and conservation activities for students at Silwood Park Campus.
Being part of the larger Imperial student body, several of us are also members and actively engage in activities of clubs based in South Kensington as well!
Informally, we additionally have clubs that partake in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), hosted either on the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or in indoor sports facilities in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Alongside club activities and lessons, we have numerous community-led events on campus. Silwood Park possesses its own student council that organizes and coordinates such activities to ensure we enjoy a vibrant and exciting student life! In recent months, we’ve held 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 beginning of the year, where everyone gathered to make dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. We’ve also hosted community-organized celebrations for events from across the globe (like Carnival) or festivities just for the joy of partying.
However, my favorite campus event has to be the weekly pub quiz arranged by our student community. It’s customary at Silwood that the losers of the pub quiz must organize the next one, and I can proudly assert the most pub quizzes set this year. Despite failing in numerous quizzes due to my limited general knowledge, there’s invariably enjoyable fun to be had with good friends and a nice pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my home away from home
Even though it’s a 30-minute walk from the lively atmosphere of civilization (like the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never felt dull or devoid of excitement. Besides the plethora of events and activities, we boast a warm and inviting community made up of students from around the globe. All of us cherish nature and adore our stunning campus grounds.