Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they see a vibrant, intriguing, and green campus filled with wildlife and plant life not typically found at our other campuses like South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are correct – every representation of Silwood Park is true!
As a member of this lesser-known community within Imperial, I would like to showcase the student experience, activities, and community at our campus located in the beautiful parkland of Ascot, Berkshire.
Introducing Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor research facility, encompassing 77 hectares of terrain and showcasing habitats including freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” woodland, and open grasslands. A quick search on iNaturalist, an application for mapping and sharing biodiversity observations worldwide within a network of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been noted on campus, and a further inquiry on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been identified on campus to date.
Even more fascinating, Silwood Park is also home to numerous long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being among the more distinguished projects undertaken on-site.
The student experience at Silwood Park
The campus primarily accommodates 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 frequently convene to discuss books of interest on their reading lists
- Gardening Club – managing the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – organizing nature walks and conservation activities for fellow students at Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the broader Imperial student body, many of us are also members and actively participate in the activities of clubs based in South Kensington!
Additionally, we have informal clubs that engage in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), utilizing either the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or the indoor sports facilities located in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Alongside club activities and classes, we host numerous community-driven events on campus. Silwood Park boasts its own student council that organizes and facilitates these events to ensure a lively and enriching student life! In recent months, we held the Silwood language exchange, allowing our largely international community to come together and share our languages and cultures over a few weeks, and we celebrated our annual Chinese New Year festivities at the beginning of the year, where everyone united to make dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. We’ve also hosted community-organized parties to mark global celebrations (such as Carnival) and spontaneous parties just for the joy of partying.
However, my favorite event on campus has to be the weekly pub quiz, arranged by our student community. It’s a tradition at Silwood that the losing team of the pub quiz is responsible for setting the next one, and I can proudly boast the record for the most pub quizzes organized this year. Even though I’ve lost many pub quizzes due to my lack of general knowledge, there’s always a great time to be had with wonderful company and a good pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s situated a 30-minute walk from the lively energy of civilization (e.g., the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never seemed dull or insufficient. In addition to the many events and activities, we enjoy a friendly and inclusive community made up of students from across the globe.