Neighbourhood environments play an important role in shaping health, wellbeing, and opportunities for social connection in later life. A key challenge for policymakers, planners, and service providers is designing age-friendly environments that respond to older people’s diverse social and mobility needs, while recognising the health and spatial inequalities that make participation easier for some groups than others. Although planning has an important role to play in supporting ageing well in place, policy frameworks often rely on standardised indicators and age-friendly checklists that can overlook the uneven, lived geographies of later life.

This paper presents findings from ENOLA (Enhancing Neighbourhood Environments for Older Adult Social Connectedness), a UK-based research project funded by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and undertaken in collaboration with Re-engage, a charity working to reduce social isolation among older people. The study combined creative, qualitative and spatial methods, including interviews, social world mapping, and go-along interviews, to explore how older adults experience and navigate their local neighbourhoods.

Findings are presented through a series of spatial stories that overlay participants’ existing and ideal social worlds, revealing how everyday environmental conditions enable or constrain opportunities for social connection. The analysis highlights the relational and emotional dimensions of place that are often absent from conventional planning evidence. The paper argues that spatial storytelling offers a valuable approach for incorporating lived experience into planning for ageing, moving beyond deficit-based narratives and supporting more responsive, place-based interventions to reduce inequalities and enhance social connectedness in later life.