Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they see a verdant, enchanting, and green campus bustling with flora and fauna not typically found at other locations such as South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are correct – every depiction of Silwood Park holds true!
As a voice for this lesser-known community at Imperial, I wish to showcase the student experience, activities, and community at our natural parkland campus located in Ascot, Berkshire.
Welcome to Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor research facility, covering 77 hectares and encompassing habitats such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and expansive grasslands. A quick search on iNaturalist, an application designed for cataloging and sharing biodiversity observations worldwide within a social network of naturalists, indicates that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, and an additional search on eBird highlights that 111 bird species have been noted thus far.
More intriguingly, Silwood Park is the location of numerous long-term field research initiatives, with Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being two of the more prominent studies conducted on-site.
Life of Students at Silwood Park
The campus primarily supports postgraduate students focused on projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us are members of 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 meet to discuss interesting literature
- Gardening Club – managing the plots in our community garden
- Conservation Club – coordinating 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 the activities of clubs based in South Kensington!
Informally, we additionally have clubs that participate in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), using either the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on-campus or indoor sports facilities in neighboring towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Apart from club activities and classes, we host a wide range of community-led events on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council responsible for organizing and facilitating these activities, ensuring a lively and dynamic student atmosphere! Recently, we hosted the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community shared languages and cultures over several weeks, and we also celebrated our annual Chinese New Year event at the year’s beginning, where everyone came together to make dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. We’ve also organized community parties celebrating global events (like Carnival), or simply gatherings just for the joy of having a good time.
Nevertheless, my favorite campus event would have to be the weekly pub quiz, hosted by our student community. It’s a Silwood tradition that the losing team from the pub quiz must organize the next one, and I can proudly declare the highest number of pub quizzes set this year. Despite losing many pub quizzes owing to my lackluster general trivia knowledge, there’s always great enjoyment to be had with splendid company and a refreshing pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s a 30-minute walk from the lively buzz of civilization (e.g., the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never been dull or uninteresting. Besides the multitude of events and activities, we are part of a friendly and inviting community made up of students from various corners of the globe. We all share a love for nature, our stunning campus grounds, and more importantly, enjoy each other’s presence. We are a tight-knit community that