Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they imagine a verdant, enigmatic campus buzzing with wildlife and plants rarely found at other locations like South Kensington or White City. In numerous respects, they’re accurate – each portrayal of Silwood Park holds true!
As a voice for this lesser-known segment of the Imperial community, I wish to showcase the student experience, initiatives, and camaraderie at our natural parkland campus located in Ascot, Berkshire.
A brief overview of Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor research facility, covering 77 hectares and encompassing environments such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and expansive grasslands. A quick search on iNaturalist, an application for documenting and sharing biodiversity observations globally within a social network of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, while an additional inquiry on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been recognized so far.
More intriguingly, Silwood Park is also the venue for numerous long-term field-based research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being two of the more prominent studies carried out on-site.
Life as a student at Silwood Park
The campus primarily houses postgraduate students with interests in projects related to ecology, conservation, and evolution. Most of us are involved in various clubs based at Silwood Park. Some notable examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for the care of the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – who meet regularly to discuss the titles of interest in their reading selections
- Gardening Club – who oversee the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – who arrange nature walks and environmental activities for students on Silwood Park Campus.
Being part of the broader Imperial student cohort, many of us are also members and actively participate in the events hosted by clubs in South Kensington!
Casually, we also have clubs that partake in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (which happens to be my personal favorite!), located either at the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or at nearby indoor sports facilities in towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
In addition to club activities and academic lessons, we host numerous community-driven events on campus. Silwood Park boasts its own student council that organizes and coordinates these activities to ensure we experience a lively and enjoyable student life! Recently, we had the Silwood language exchange, where our predominantly international community gathered to share our languages and cultures over several weeks, and we also celebrated our annual Chinese New Year event at the beginning of the year, where everyone came together to prepare dumplings and couplets in celebration of the new lunar year. We’ve also held community-led parties commemorating celebrations from across the globe (such as Carnival), or parties simply for the joy of celebrating.
My favorite campus event, however, has to be the weekly pub quiz, arranged by our student community. It’s a part of Silwood culture that the losers of the pub quiz must host the next one, and I can proudly state I hold the record for the most pub quizzes set this year. Although I’ve lost many pub quizzes due to my limited knowledge of general trivia, there’s always a great time to be had with good company and a quality pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s just a 30-minute walk from the lively essence of society (e.g., the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never come across as dull or deficient. Beyond the plethora of events and initiatives, we enjoy a warm and inviting community made up of students from various corners of the globe. We all share a love for nature, cherish our stunning campus grounds, and, more significantly,