The UK's All-Women Retirement Community Is A Suburban 'Feminist Utopia' With Movie Nights And Yoga

With co-living becoming increasingly popular across the U.S., there's one pioneering community in the U.K. that can teach us a lot. New Ground Cohousing (originally known as Older Women Co-Housing) is the home of a cohort of 26 women ages 50 and up, the eldest in their 90s. British newspaper The Guardian dubbed it a "feminist utopia." North London's suburban enclave Chipping Barnet is not somewhere you would think revolutionary stories sprout from. Yet here they are — an inspiring group who spent 18 years founding and finessing their dream co-op life and now spend their time in camaraderie with like-minded golden gals who said "no thanks" to retirement homes.

Rather than selecting one of Europe's best coastal cities to retire to, the group of women, many of whom worked across the creative industries in the British capital — some of whom still make art at New Ground — opted to stay in London, not far from leafy hilltop North London spots like Alexandra Palace and its city skyline views. The women worked with their architects to participate in the design of the co-housing, ensuring it would be light and spacious with shared social spaces and a large garden. Even the garden paths were planned for ease of navigation, making the most of them for the years to come.

Living in intentional communities is proven to improve quality of life, no matter how old you are. More than 400 are set up across the U.K., but New Ground Cohousing was the first of its kind for women only ages 50 and upward in Britain.

First off, co-housing is not a commune. The residents have their own individual homes (or condos in the case of New Ground), which are owned or rented and exist around shared spaces for classes, dining, and gardening, in this case. The 26-woman group manage the place themselves, have volunteer roles to ensure the smooth running, and perhaps most importantly, support each other and socialize. At New Ground, they keep each other fit, healthy, and busy with yoga classes and movie nights. Their feminist stance isn't anti-men, and they visit their brothers, sons, and partners, but they also choose to focus on their collective independence from patriarchy in their elder years. When The Guardian interviewed the group, they cited a similar project in Canada as a cautionary tale in that it started out as all women, but after it let men join, its management was all male within six months.

Sociologically and scientifically, this model of alternative elder care offers many benefits. It's combating loneliness that's rising in people over 65 in the U.K. Almost 4 million people of that demographic live alone in Britain, and 70% of them are women. The women here keep a watchful eye on each other, while professional caregivers visit when necessary. Communal living can make us happier, improving our quality of life and, in turn, our physical health. In the camaraderie at New Ground, its residents have found creative, healthy, fulfilling, and sociable lives. So before plotting your retirement to a remote island destination no one's ever heard of, invest in grabbing a copy of "Our Later Years: Shared wisdom on ageing powerfully together" written collectively (of course) by the residents of New Ground and released in May 2026. They're an inspiring bunch.