Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When many Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they imagine a verdant, enchanting, and green campus bustling with wildlife and plant species seldom found at other campuses like South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are correct – every depiction of Silwood Park is spot on!
As a member of this less-publicized community at Imperial, I wish to shine a light on the student experience, activities, and community within our natural parkland campus in Ascot, Berkshire.
A glimpse into Silwood Park
Silwood Park functions as Imperial’s outdoor research facility, covering 77 hectares and showcasing ecosystems such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and expansive grasslands. A quick look on iNaturalist, an app designed for mapping and sharing biodiversity observations worldwide alongside an online community of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus. Additionally, a search on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been noted on campus to date.
More intriguingly, Silwood Park serves as the location for numerous long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being among the most recognized projects conducted here.
Life as a student at Silwood Park
The campus primarily hosts postgraduate students focused on projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us belong to various clubs based at Silwood Park. Noteworthy examples include:
- Chicken Club – which attends to the chickens nurtured behind our residence halls
- Book Club – which meets regularly to discuss selected reading materials of interest
- Gardening Club – which oversees the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – which arranges nature walks and conservation-oriented activities for students at Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the larger Imperial student body, many of us are also involved in activities hosted by clubs in South Kensington!
In a more casual setting, we have groups that partake in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my absolute favorite!), which are held either at the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or at the indoor sports facilities in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Alongside club events and classes, we host numerous community-led happenings on campus. Silwood Park boasts its own student council that organizes and manages these activities to ensure a lively and engaging student life! Recently, we held the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community united to share our languages and cultures over a few weeks. We also enjoyed our annual Chinese New Year celebration at the beginning of the year, where everyone came together to create dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. Additionally, we have had community-organized gatherings celebrating various global events (such as Carnival), or events purely dedicated to the joy of celebration.
<pHowever, my favorite event on campus must be the weekly pub quiz organized by our student community. It is part of Silwood culture that the losers of the pub quiz are responsible for hosting the next one, and I can confidently claim to have set the most quizzes this year. Despite losing countless pub quizzes due to my insufficient knowledge of general trivia, there’s always a good time to be had with great company and a fine pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my sanctuary away from home
Though it is a 30-minute walk from the bustling atmosphere of civilization (like the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never felt dull or insufficient. Along with the myriad of events and activities, we have a friendly and inviting community made up of students from various parts of the world. We all cherish nature, appreciate our stunning campus grounds, and, more crucially, enjoy one another’s company.