Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students think of Silwood Park, they picture a verdant, enigmatic, and green campus brimming with wildlife and flora that aren’t typically found at other campuses like South Kensington or White City. In numerous respects, they are correct – and every representation of Silwood Park holds true!
As a spokesperson for this lesser-known segment of Imperial, I wish to shed light on the student experience, activities, and community at our natural parkland campus located in Ascot, Berkshire.
A glimpse into Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s open-air laboratory, stretching across 77 hectares and encompassing environments such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and broad grasslands. A quick search on iNaturalist, an application for documenting 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, while further exploration on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been noted so far.
Intriguingly, 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 carried out on-site.
Student experience at Silwood Park
The campus predominantly accommodates postgraduate students focused on projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Most of us are involved in several clubs based at Silwood Park. Some notable examples include:
- Chicken Club – caring for the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – regularly convening to discuss interesting literature
- Gardening Club – managing the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – organizing nature walks and conservation-related activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the broader Imperial student body, many of us also engage in activities of clubs located in South Kensington!
Informally, we have clubs that partake in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), taking place either on the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or in indoor sports facilities in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Beyond club engagements and classes, we host numerous community-driven events on campus. Silwood Park features its own student council responsible for organizing and facilitating such activities to promote a lively and enjoyable student life! In recent months, we’ve conducted the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community shared languages and cultures over several weeks, and we also held our yearly 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. Additionally, we’ve had community-organized parties to honor global celebrations (like Carnival), or just parties for the sake of having a good time.
My favorite event on campus has to be the weekly pub quiz, arranged by our student community. It’s ingrained in Silwood culture that the losers of the quiz must organize the next one, and I can proudly claim the highest number of quizzes set this year. Despite failing numerous quizzes due to my lack of general trivia knowledge, there’s always great enjoyment to be found in the company of friends over a good pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s a 30-minute stroll from the lively atmosphere of civilization (e.g., the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never felt dull or insufficient. In addition to the many events and activities, we enjoy a friendly and inviting community made up of students from around the globe. We all cherish nature, appreciate our stunning campus grounds, and more importantly, value each other’s company. We’re a