Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet focusing on Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students envision Silwood Park, they picture a verdant, enigmatic, and green campus bustling with wildlife and vegetation rarely found at other campuses 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 segment of the Imperial community, I wish to showcase the student experience, activities, and community present at our natural parkland campus located in Ascot, Berkshire.
An overview of Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor laboratory, covering 77 hectares and featuring ecosystems such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and expansive grasslands. A quick search on iNaturalist, an application that allows users to document and share biodiversity observations worldwide with a community of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus. A subsequent search on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been spotted on campus to date.
Interestingly, Silwood Park also hosts numerous long-term field research projects, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being among the more recognized initiatives taking place on-site.
Student experience at Silwood Park
The campus primarily accommodates postgraduate students who are engaged in projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Most of us participate in various clubs based at Silwood Park. Noteworthy examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for nurturing the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – convenes regularly to discuss intriguing reads from their book selection
- Gardening Club – oversees the plots in our communal garden
- Conservation Club – arranges nature walks and conservation-oriented activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the broader Imperial student community, many of us also join and take part in activities organized by clubs in South Kensington!
Casually, we have clubs that focus on sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), which occur either on the multi-use games area (MUGA) on campus or at the indoor sports facilities located in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Alongside club activities and classes, we host numerous community-led events on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council that plans and facilitates these events to maintain a lively and dynamic student environment! Recently, we hosted the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community gathered to exchange languages and cultures over several weeks, and we also celebrated our annual Chinese New Year at the beginning of the year, where everyone participated in making dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. Additionally, we’ve held community-organized parties celebrating various festivities from around the globe (like Carnival), or simply parties thrown for the joy of celebrating.
However, my favorite campus event must be the weekly pub quiz, organized by our student body. It has become a Silwood tradition that the team with the lowest score in the pub quiz is tasked with hosting the next one, and I can confidently claim the title for the most pub quizzes hosted this year. Despite my repeated defeats in various pub quizzes owing to my lack of general trivia knowledge, there’s always plenty of fun to be had in the company of friends over a good pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s a 30-minute walk from the lively atmosphere of civilization (e.g., the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never seemed dull or insufficient. Beyond the many events and activities, we boast a friendly and inviting community filled with students from around the globe. All of