Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When many students from Imperial picture Silwood Park, they see a verdant, enchanting, and green campus alive with wildlife and plant life not typically found at other locations such as South Kensington or White City. In numerous respects, they are correct – and every visualization associated with Silwood Park holds true!
As an ambassador of this less prominent community within Imperial, I wish to emphasize the student experience, activities, and camaraderie at our natural parkland campus located in Ascot, Berkshire.
Getting acquainted with Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor research facility, covering 77 hectares and showcasing ecosystems such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and expansive grasslands. A straightforward search on iNaturalist, an application designed for mapping and sharing biodiversity observations worldwide with an online network of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, and an additional search on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been documented thus far.
Furthermore, Silwood Park is the site of several long-term field research initiatives, with Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being among the more prominent studies carried out on-site.
Experiencing student life at Silwood Park
The campus primarily houses postgraduate students engaged in projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us participate in various clubs based at Silwood Park. Noteworthy examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for the care of the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – who meet regularly to discuss intriguing titles from their reading lists
- Gardening Club – who tend to the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – who coordinate nature walks and conservation-related activities for the students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the broader Imperial student community, many of us are also involved and actively take part in clubs based in South Kensington!
Informally, we have clubs that participate in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (which happens to be my favorite!), utilizing the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or accessing indoor sports facilities in nearby towns such as Bracknell or Ascot.
In addition to club activities and classes, several community-driven events take place on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council that organizes and manages these events to ensure a lively and engaging student life! In recent months, we hosted the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community gathered to share languages and cultures over several weeks, alongside our annual Chinese New Year celebration at the beginning of the year, where everyone came together to prepare dumplings and couplets to welcome the start of a new lunar year. We have also seen community-led parties celebrating various global festivities (like Carnival), as well as parties organized simply for the joy of celebration.
However, my favorite event on campus has to be the weekly pub quiz, run by our student community. It’s a part of Silwood culture that the teams who lose the pub quiz must organize the following one, and I can proudly claim to have set the most pub quizzes this year. Despite my frequent losses due to my limited knowledge of general trivia, there’s always a great time to be had with wonderful company and a nice pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s a 30-minute walk from the bustling vibes of civilization (such as the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never been dull or insufficient. Beyond the multitude of events and activities, we