Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they imagine a verdant, enigmatic, and green campus abundant with wildlife and vegetation rarely found at other campuses like 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 at Imperial, I wish to emphasize the student experience, activities, and camaraderie at our natural parkland campus in Ascot, Berkshire.
Introducing Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor laboratory, covering 77 hectares and showcasing habitats such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” woodland, and open fields. A straightforward search on iNaturalist, an app designed for mapping and sharing biodiversity observations globally with a naturalist social network, shows that 1,436 species of flora, fauna, and fungi have been recorded on campus, while an additional search on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been documented here thus far.
Notably, Silwood Park is home to various long-term field research initiatives, including the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project, which are among the more prominent studies conducted on-site.
Student life at Silwood Park
The campus primarily accommodates postgraduate students pursuing projects focused on ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us are involved in several clubs established at Silwood Park. Prominent examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for the care of chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – regularly convening to discuss topics of interest from their reading lists
- Gardening Club – overseeing the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – organizing nature walks and conservation-related activities for students at Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the broader Imperial student community, many of us also take part in activities of clubs located in South Kensington!
Casually, we have clubs that engage in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), which take place on the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or at the indoor sports facilities in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Alongside club activities and lessons, we host numerous community-led events on campus. Silwood Park boasts its own student council that organizes and facilitates these activities to maintain a lively and dynamic student life! Recently, we held the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community united to share languages and cultures over a span of weeks, as well as our annual Chinese New Year celebration at the start of the year, where everyone gathered to make dumplings and couplets to ring in the new lunar year. We’ve also enjoyed community-hosted parties celebrating global events (like Carnival) or simply festivals thrown for the joy of celebrations.
However, my favorite campus event must be the weekly pub quiz, hosted by our student community. It’s a tradition at Silwood that the team with the lowest score in the pub quiz has to arrange the next one, and I can proudly state that I have set the most pub quizzes this year. Despite losing many quizzes due to my limited grasp of general knowledge, there’s always a good time to be had among great company and a refreshing pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Although it’s a 30-minute walk from the lively atmosphere of civilization (e.g., the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never been dull or unfulfilling. In addition to the variety of events and activities, we enjoy a warm and inviting community made up of students from all corners of the globe. We all share a love for nature, our stunning campus grounds, and,