Composed by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they imagine a verdant, enchanting, and green campus brimming with wildlife and plants not typically encountered at other campuses such as South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are accurate – each depiction of Silwood Park is indeed true!
As a representative of this lesser-known segment at Imperial, I’d like to shed light on the student experience, activities, and community at our natural parkland campus located 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” forest, and open grasslands. A quick search on iNaturalist, an app that enables users to map and share biodiversity observations worldwide through a social network 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 on campus to date.
Interestingly, 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.
Student experiences at Silwood Park
The campus predominantly accommodates postgraduate students who are passionate about projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Most of us engage in various clubs operating at Silwood Park. Prominent examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for caring for the chickens raised behind our student accommodations
- Book Club – who meet regularly to discuss selected books of interest
- Gardening Club – who maintain the allotments in our shared community garden
- Conservation Club – who coordinate nature walks and conservation-oriented activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the larger Imperial student body, many of us also join in activities from clubs based in South Kensington!
Casually, we also have clubs that participate in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), which take place either at 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, we host numerous community-led events on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council that organizes and supports such activities to foster a lively and engaging student life! In recent months, we held the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community gathered to share languages and cultures over a few weeks, alongside our annual Chinese New Year celebration at the beginning of the year, where everyone joined to make dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. We’ve also celebrated community-organized parties for various global events (such as Carnival), or simply organized parties for the joy of celebrating.
However, my favorite campus event must be the weekly pub quiz, organized by our student community. It’s a part of Silwood culture that the teams with the lowest scores at the pub quiz are responsible for setting the next one, and I can proudly admit to having set the highest number of pub quizzes this year. Despite losing in numerous pub quizzes due to my lack of general knowledge, there’s always fun to be had with great company and a refreshing pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my home away from 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 deficient. In addition to the abundance of events and activities, we have a friendly and inviting community made up of students from around the globe. We all