Allen Park

Allen Park is the main campus of the Council for the Aged Kempton Park, which has served older people in the town since 1963. It began as "Die Kempton Parkse Vereniging vir die Belange van Bejaardes", became the Raad vir Bejaardes Kempton Park in 1994, and was renamed the Council for the Aged Kempton Park in 2023. The land it stands on in Allen Grove belonged to the Allen family, who farmed there from 1896 to 1963 and then donated it to the people of Kempton Park on the understanding that it be used for a facility benefiting the town's senior citizens. A Service Centre and housing complex were built on the land and were operational by 1978; the original housing complex is now known as "Platteland", and a later three-storey block of flats, formerly "Hillbrow", was renamed Allen Heights by its residents in 2023. The Council lists Allen Park itself as 236 rental units. On the same grounds, Allen Park Frail Care provides 49 nursing-care beds and 17 assisted-living beds - the assisted-living wing grew out of ten flats converted for mid-care and named after a former Director of the Council, Ms Pierette Roux. The frail care site states that qualified medical staff and care workers are available 24 hours a day, and that residents in assisted living and frail care receive three balanced meals a day on menus prepared by qualified dieticians. The Service Centre caters for meals and functions and hosts a library, coffee shop, tuck shop, hairdressing salon and gym alongside snooker, bowls, jukskei, card and bingo clubs, line dancing, arts and crafts, and church services and Bible study groups; lunches are served at reasonable prices. A wall of remembrance with over 600 niches was erected on the Allen Park grounds in 2015 and is dedicated to the Allen family. The Council also runs an outreach programme to the Phomolong community next to Tembisa, where a service centre operates four days a week providing cooked meals, needlework and arts and crafts, and vegetable gardens tended by the older people themselves. The office is open 8:00 to 16:00. The Council's motto is "We care for those who cared for us".