Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students envision Silwood Park, they picture a vibrant, enchanting, and green campus rich with wildlife and vegetation not typically found at other locations such as South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are correct – and every vision conjured of Silwood Park is accurate!
As a representative of this lesser-known group at Imperial, I wish to emphasize the student life, activities, and the community at our ecological parkland campus in Ascot, Berkshire.
An overview of Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor research facility, covering 77 hectares and featuring environments such as freshwater rivers, ponds, an “ancient” woodland, and expansive meadows. A straightforward search on iNaturalist, an app devoted to documenting and sharing global biodiversity observations within an online community of naturalists, demonstrates that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus. An additional inquiry on eBird shows that 111 bird species have been noted on campus up to now.
Moreover, Silwood Park is notable for hosting numerous long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being two of the more recognized studies conducted on-site.
Life as a student at Silwood Park
The campus primarily accommodates postgraduate students focused on projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Most of us belong to various clubs situated at Silwood Park. Prominent examples include:
- Chicken Club – who nurture the chickens raised behind our housing accommodations
- Book Club – who frequently meet to discuss intriguing titles from their reading list
- Gardening Club – who oversee the allotments in our communal garden
- Conservation Club – who coordinate nature hikes and conservation-related events for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the broader Imperial student body, many of us are also members and habitually engage in activities of clubs based in South Kensington as well!
Informally, we also have clubs that partake in sports activities like badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), located either on the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or at the indoor sport facilities found in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Alongside club events and classes, we host various community-led gatherings on campus. Silwood Park has its very own student council that organizes and manages these events, ensuring we maintain a lively and dynamic student experience! In recent times, we’ve hosted the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community convened to exchange languages and cultures over several weeks. We also celebrated our annual Chinese New Year commemorations at the beginning of the year, where all came together to prepare dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. We’ve also enjoyed community-arranged celebrations for events worldwide (like Carnival), or parties organized simply for the joy of gathering.
My favorite campus event, however, has to be the weekly pub quiz, organized by our student community. It’s a part of Silwood culture that the individuals who lose the pub quiz are responsible for organizing the next one, and I can proudly say I have set the highest number of pub quizzes this year. Despite losing numerous quizzes due to my inadequate general knowledge, there’s always a great time to be had with good friends and a refreshing pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Although it’s a 30-minute stroll from the lively excitement of civilization (e.g., the train station and the nearby village), life at Silwood Park has never seemed dull or deficient. In addition to the abundance of events and activities, we boast a friendly and inviting community composed of students from around the globe. We all have a passion for nature.