Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet specializing in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they think of a verdant, enchanting, and green campus bustling with flora and fauna rarely found at other locations like South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are correct – every depiction of Silwood Park is true!
As a voice for this lesser-known group at Imperial, I wish to shed light on the student experience, activities, and community within our natural parkland campus located in Ascot, Berkshire.
Introducing Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor laboratory, covering 77 hectares and featuring environments such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and open fields. A quick search on iNaturalist, an application designed for mapping and sharing biodiversity observations globally within a social network of naturalists, shows that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, with a further check on eBird indicating that 111 bird species have been identified to date.
More intriguingly, Silwood Park is home to various long-term field research endeavors, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being two of the more recognized studies conducted on the premises.
Life as a student at Silwood Park
The campus mainly accommodates postgraduate students focused on projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us participate in several clubs located at Silwood Park. Notable examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for caring for the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – regularly convenes to discuss titles of interest from their reading list
- Gardening Club – oversees the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – arranges nature walks and conservation-focused activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the larger Imperial student body, many of us are also members of clubs in South Kensington and actively engage in their events!
Additionally, we have informal groups involved in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), played either at the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or at indoor sports facilities in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Beyond club-oriented activities and classes, we host numerous community-led events on campus. Silwood Park has its student council that organizes and facilitates activities to promote an engaging and lively student experience! Recently, we’ve hosted a Silwood language exchange, bringing together our predominantly international community to share languages and cultures over several weeks, as well as our annual Chinese New Year celebration at the start of the year where we united to make dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. We’ve also enjoyed community-organized parties honoring various global celebrations (such as Carnival) or simply parties for the sake of celebration.
My most cherished campus event, however, has to be the weekly pub quiz arranged by our student community. It’s a Silwood tradition that the losers of the pub quiz host the subsequent one, and I can proudly claim to have organized the most quizzes this year. Although I’ve lost countless pub quizzes due to my limited general knowledge, there’s always ample enjoyment to be had with great company and a refreshing pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s a 30-minute walk from the bustling energy of civilization (like the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never seemed dull or inadequate. In addition to the many events and activities, we are part of a friendly and inclusive community made up of students from around the globe. We all share a passion for nature and cherish our beautiful campus grounds.