Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When many Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they see a vibrant, enchanting, and verdant campus brimming with wildlife and plants not often found at other locations such as South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they are correct – each representation of Silwood Park is accurate!
As a spokesperson for this lesser-known segment of Imperial, I wish to draw attention to the student life, activities, and community within our natural parkland campus in Ascot, Berkshire.
Overview of Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor laboratory, covering 77 hectares and featuring habitats such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and open fields. A quick search on iNaturalist, an app for mapping and sharing biodiversity observations worldwide with a social network of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been cataloged on campus, and a further inquiry on eBird shows that 111 bird species have been recorded to date.
Notably, Silwood Park hosts numerous long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being among the more recognized projects taking place on-site.
Life as a Student at Silwood Park
The campus primarily accommodates postgraduate students engaged in projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Many of us participate in various clubs located at Silwood Park. Some notable examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for the care of the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – which convenes regularly to discuss books of interest on their reading list
- Gardening Club – which oversees the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – which organizes nature walks and conservation activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the broader Imperial student community, many of us are also members and actively take part in the activities of clubs based in South Kensington as well!
Additionally, we have informal clubs that engage in sports like badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), which take place on either the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or at the indoor sports facilities located in nearby towns such as Bracknell or Ascot.
Besides club activities and lessons, we host several community-led events on campus. Silwood Park has its own student council that organizes and facilitates these activities, ensuring we maintain a lively and exciting student life! Recently, we’ve hosted the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community came together to share languages and cultures over a few weeks, along with our annual Chinese New Year celebration at the year’s beginning, where everyone gathered to prepare dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. We’ve also seen community-organized parties celebrating events from around the globe (like Carnival), or gatherings simply for the joy of having a party.
My favorite event on campus, however, has to be the weekly pub quiz, organized by our student community. It’s part of Silwood culture that the losers of the pub quiz must set the next one, and I can happily claim the title for the most pub quizzes set this year. Although I have lost many quizzes due to my limited knowledge of general trivia, there’s always a great time to be had with wonderful company and a nice pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s located a 30-minute walk from the vibrant essence of civilization (such as the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never seemed dull or uninviting. In addition to the multitude of events and activities, we have a friendly and inclusive community made up of students from all corners of the globe. All