Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When most Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they see a verdant, enigmatic, and green campus brimming with wildlife and vegetation seldom found at other campuses like South Kensington or White City. In many respects, they’re correct – every depiction of Silwood Park holds true!
As a representative of this less-familiar community at Imperial, I wish to emphasize the student experience, activities, and community within our natural parkland campus in Ascot, Berkshire.
An overview of Silwood Park
Silwood Park is Imperial’s outdoor research hub, covering 77 hectares and featuring habitats such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and open meadows. A straightforward search on iNaturalist, an application for documenting and sharing biodiversity observations globally with an online community of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus. Additionally, a search on eBird indicates that 111 bird species have been noted on campus to date.
Moreover, Silwood Park serves as the location for numerous long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being two of the more recognized projects carried out here.
Student community 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 based at Silwood Park. Key examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for caring for the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – who meet regularly to discuss books of interest from their reading lists
- Gardening Club – who maintain the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – who coordinate nature walks and conservation-focused activities for students on the Silwood Park Campus.
As part of the broader Imperial student body, many of us are also members and actively engage in activities of clubs based in South Kensington too!
Additionally, we informally host clubs that participate in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), which take place either on the multi-use games area (MUGA) on campus or at indoor sports facilities located in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
In addition to club activities and academic lessons, we have numerous community-led events occurring on campus. Silwood Park boasts its own student council that coordinates and facilitates such activities to promote a vibrant and dynamic student life! Recently, we had the Silwood language exchange, where our largely international community came together to share languages and cultures over several weeks. We also celebrated our traditional Chinese New Year at the beginning of the year, where everyone gathered to make dumplings and couplets to welcome the new lunar year. We’ve also organized community events celebrating festivals from around the world (like Carnival) or get-togethers purely for the enjoyment of socializing.
However, my favorite campus event must be the weekly pub quiz, organized by our student community. It’s a Silwood tradition that the losing teams of the pub quiz are tasked with setting up the next one, and I can proudly say that I have set the highest number of pub quizzes this year. Despite losing many quizzes due to my inadequate general trivia knowledge, there’s always a great time to be had with wonderful company and a nice pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Although 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 felt dull or lacking. In addition to the myriad of events and activities, we enjoy a friendly and inviting community made up of students from all corners of the globe. All of