Written by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they see a lush, enigmatic, and green campus brimming with wildlife and vegetation rarely found on other campuses like South Kensington or White City. In many ways, they’re right – every impression of Silwood Park is spot on!
As a representative of this lesser-known segment of Imperial, I seek to illuminate the student experience, activities, and community at our natural parkland campus located in Ascot, Berkshire.
Presenting Silwood Park
Silwood Park acts as Imperial’s external laboratory, covering 77 hectares and featuring habitats such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and open grasslands. A quick query on iNaturalist, an app designed for documenting and sharing biodiversity observations globally within a network of naturalists, shows that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been noted on campus, while a search on eBird reveals that 111 bird species have been recorded there to date.
More captivatingly, Silwood Park is home to various long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project standing out as two of the more notable projects undertaken on-site.
Student Experience at Silwood Park
The campus primarily accommodates postgraduate students involved in projects connected to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us participate in several clubs based at Silwood Park. Significant examples include:
- Chicken Club – tending to the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – meeting regularly to discuss interesting reads
- Gardening Club – taking care of the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – organizing nature walks and conservation initiatives for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the wider Imperial student body, many of us also engage in activities of clubs based in South Kensington!
Informally, we have clubs involved in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), taking place either in the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or at indoor sports facilities in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
In addition to club activities and lectures, we host a variety of community-led events on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council that organizes and manages these activities, ensuring an energetic and exciting student experience! Recently, we’ve held the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community shared languages and cultures over several weeks, and our annual Chinese New Year celebration at the year’s start, where everyone came together to make dumplings and couplets to greet the new lunar year. We’ve also enjoyed community-organized parties celebrating global events (like Carnival) or simply for the joy of gatherings.
My favorite event on campus, however, is the weekly pub quiz, organized by our student community. It’s a part of Silwood culture that the losing team of the pub quiz must host the next one, and I can proudly say I’ve set the highest number of pub quizzes this year. Though I often lose due to my lack of general trivia knowledge, there’s always a great time to be had with wonderful company and a good pint of beer.
Silwood Park: My Refuge Away from Home
Even though it’s a 30-minute walk from the lively atmosphere of civilization (like the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never seemed dull or unfulfilled. Alongside the numerous events and activities, we enjoy a friendly and inviting community composed of students hailing from around the globe. We all cherish nature, our stunning campus grounds, and, more importantly, each other’s company. We’re a tightly-knit community that loves stargazing in the winter chill on the open field adjacent to our bar, observing the birds and mammals that visit our room windows, and spending