June 2025 - Radlett, Guildford, London – First Choice Pet Sitters

Flaming June arrived. We had three house sits booked, which included four cats to care for.

First, a two-week stay in a village in Hertfordshire. Following that, a week in Guildford, and to finish the month, a week in south east London.

June House Sit Number One – Radlett

When we left Teddington at the end of May, we headed north.

Our first stop for June was the pretty village of Radlett in Hertfordshire.

Radlett

It is a mystery why, until now, we had never heard of Radlett.

The village is located approximately 14 miles northwest of Central London and consistently ranks among the most desirable places to live in the UK.

Radlett has become a magnet for the rich and famous, attracted here by the opportunity to live in a semi-rural village while having a train station on your doorstep, enabling you to get to (or from) central London within half an hour.

Radlett may be pretty, but it ain’t cheap!

Most of the homes for sale in the local estate agent window are upwards of a million pounds.

Famous people who currently live, or have lived in Radlett, include actress Pam St. Clement, aka Pam Butcher, singer George Michael, singer Cheryl Cole/Tweedy/Fernandez-Versini, BGT boss Simon Cowell, and many overpaid Premier League players of London-based football clubs.

The Home

Our home for the fortnight was a very quaint Victorian terraced cottage just a few minutes from the high street.

Everything about the home was lovely, clean, and comfortable.

The highlight, though, was the garden. It was only small, but mature and had been really thoughtfully planted, making good use of every inch.

As the summer sun had already put on his hat, we were able to take full advantage of the garden. It was looking lovely in full bloom.

We spent many hours enjoying its scents, colours, and peacefulness.

The Pet

Smokey the cat is very attentive and loves human company.

He is an affectionate 15-year-old rescue cat and was a doddle to care for.

Smokey had total access to the outside but never ventured far from home and spent most of his time hiding in the shade of the bushes in the garden.

We loved our time with him and would love to see him again sometime in the future.

Out and About

The Elstree Studios

Borehamwood, home of the Elstree Studios, is the nearest town to Radlett, literally four minutes on the train to get there.

These are working studios and many films and television shows, past and present, are filmed there, including The Voice, Strictly Come Dancing, Big Brother etc.

This is a busy working environment, so there are no tours of the studios are available to members of the public.

However, it is a great place to get tickets to be in the audience whilst a show is being filmed.

Unfortunately for us, we didn’t realise how close the studios were until we arrived, and the tickets go like hot potatoes. You have to book early!

When I checked, there was nothing available.

We missed out this time, but it’s definitely on our to-do list if we ever end up in this area again.

Shenley

An easy countryside walk from Radlett took us to the neighbouring village of Shenley.

Radlett is semi-rural, but Shenley is full-on rural.

What a difference a couple of kilometres makes!

We did this 5k walk daily as our evening exercise, and loved how quickly the landscape changed from houses to horses and manicured lawns to wild fields in such a short space of time.

St Albans

A five-minute train ride north of Radlett took us to the cathedral city of St Albans.

We originally only visited St Albans for the gym.

We are currently members of Pure Gym, mainly because it has the most branches of all the chain gym brands. This makes it more likely for us to find one wherever we are in the UK.

When we choose our house sits, their proximity to a Pure Gym has become high on our list of must-haves!

However, there is more to St Albans than Pure Gym.

The city began its life as the Roman city of Verulamium.

Once, one of the largest Roman settlements in Britain, Verulamium is not forgotten. References to it can be found all around St Albans.

You can visit the Verulamium Museum, which houses stunning mosaics and Roman artefacts. Then take a walk through Verulamium Park, a beautiful 100-acre green space built on the site of the original Roman city.

Here, there are the remains of the Roman city walls, a Roman hypocaust (an ancient underfloor heating system) and the preserved mosaic floors.

The city’s current name is derived from St Alban, Britain’s first Christian martyr.

Legend says St Alban was martyred on a hill outside the Roman city.

The location of the hill is where St Albans Cathedral now stands.

With the longest nave in England and a history that covers over a thousand years, the cathedral is a must-see for visitors to the city.

June House Sit Number Two – Guildford

We loved our stay in Radlett and were sad when the time came to say goodbye to Smokey. However, we knew we had a treat waiting for us at our next house sit….

From Radlett, we headed south. Three trains and two hours later, we arrived at Guildford.

The Pet

Smudge is a sixteen-year-old cat and was a delight to be around.

She was incredibly gentle and loved being in the company of humans.

Wherever we were, Smudge was never far away. If we lay on the settee, she would come to lie next to us. If we took a stroll down the garden, she wandered down with us.

She drank from a tap in the utility room and would come to lead us to it when she was thirsty.

She never left the boundary of the garden and often chose to sleep outside on one of her cushions, or in her specially made cat house.

Smudge is a very spoiled, very happy cat. We loved her

The Home

We are definitely having a great run of exceptionally nice homes to stay in.

This one was no exception. It was huge and spotlessly clean.

Upstairs reminded me of being in a hotel, a long, narrow corridor with many doors leading to who knows what?

We make a point of not opening closed doors. Once a door is opened, we feel an obligation to add that room to our cleaning schedule.

With this in mind, the fewer doors we open, the better!

The garden was massive, mainly lawn, but the treat I mentioned earlier was waiting for us at the bottom of the garden.

A swimming pool!

This was the third time we have stayed in a home with a swimming pool.

This was by far the largest, and the other two were not in the UK.

So here we were. Caring for a lovely cat, whilst staying in a beautiful home with a huge pool. Just when the UK was experiencing a mini heatwave.

The timing could not have been better. Without leaving the garden, we felt as if we were on holiday for a week!

The only bad thing about this house sit was that we were only there for a week.

The Location

The location of the home was fantastic.

It was on a quiet street, surrounded by countryside in what felt like a very rural location.

Yet the main city centre of Guildford, with all the big-name shops you would expect to see in any thriving city around the UK, including the all-important Pure Gym, was less than half an hour’s walk away.

It would be difficult to find a more perfect location to live.

Out and About

Honestly, with the sun beating down and the pool at our disposal, we didn’t have much inclination for sightseeing during our stay.

Apart from two or three walks to the city centre, for shopping and to use the gym, we hardly left the garden all week – Don’t judge us!

However, we had been told that we must make time to visit St Martha’s church.

St Martha’s Church

The church lies just to the south of the main North Downs.

It stands 574 feet high, at the top of Martha’s Hill, with no road leading to it.

The only way to visit Martha’s Church is by walking up Martha’s Hill, following a well-trodden track.

This track is part of a route across southern England, known as ‘The Pilgrims Way’.

The name derives from a story that back in the 12th century, many pilgrims travelled along this trackway, going from Winchester to the shrine of Thomas Becket, who was murdered at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, and canonised by the Pope two years later.

St Martha’s Hill is sometimes referred to in old documents as Martyr’s Hill, which makes some historians think it was named in honour of Thomas Becket,

The route of The Pilgrims Way passes through Chantry wood, which was not far from the home we were staying in, so we picked it up there and started our trek upwards, heading to the church.

It was a hot day, and the path was steep in places, but we were rewarded with some spectacular views as we progressed.

On a clear day, eight counties can be seen from St Martha’s Hill.

To the north, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Middlesex, and London can be seen. To the south, Sussex, and to the west, Hampshire and Wiltshire.

In 1745, St Martha’s church was severely damaged by an accidental explosion from a gunpowder factory which was built on the hillside.

The eastern part survived the blast, and the church continued to be used in this state until 100 years later, when the 6th Duke of Northumberland, Lord Lovaine, who owned St Martha’s Hill, organised a total restoration of St Martha’s church.

The new church opened on 15th May 1850. It was another 85 years until 1935 until St Martha’s was connected to the electricity grid.

Yvonne Arnaud, the French actress and pianist, became known as a Guildford girl having spent much of her later life living in Effingham, near Guildford.

She was a well-known figure on the English stage for nearly five decades, and the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford is named in her memory.

Her ashes were scattered in St. Martha’s churchyard on St. Martha’s Hill, and later, those of her husband, Hugh McLellan.

There is a memorial stone dedicated to them on the church grounds.

Yvonne Arnaud (1890-1958) Hugh McLellan (1895 -1982)

The uphill trek was well worth it, and arriving at the church felt like the prize for all our effort.

For many years, it was thought that the inaccessibility of St Martha’s Church would be its downfall. As it turned out, it has been its saviour.

The church has a strong congregation and also welcomes many visitors each year, who, like us, are drawn by the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of many thousands before, and walk just a small section of The Pilgrims Way.

June House Sit Number Three – Honor Oak

With just a few days of June left, we had one more house sit to do.

We left Guildford for our two-hour, three-train journey.

Destination – Honor Oak, southwest London.

This is our second visit to Honor Oak. We were here on a different house sit in October 2024.

We learned from our previous visit that this area, strictly speaking, is Forest Hill, but locals will tell you they live in Honor Oak. It must sound posher 😅

The name comes from a tree known as ‘The Oak of Honor.’

The tree is a well-known landmark and grows on the summit of ‘One Tree Hill‘, a nature reserve which is in the area.

The current Oak of Honor was planted in 1905 and is the third to have been planted.

The second was destroyed by a lightning strike in the 1880’s.

No one seems to know what happened to the original.

Legend has it that the tree earned its name because, in 1602, Queen Elizabeth picnicked under it while on her way to nearby Lewisham.

It is said, the Queen got drunk during her picnic and, in her drunken state, decided to knight the tree, giving it the Royal title of ‘Honor.’

One Tree Hill was once part of a forest that covered much of South London, but by the 19th century, most of the area had been cleared for housing.

The Pets

We had two cats to care for here. Snowball and Fluffy.

Unlike most of the cats we have cared for recently, Snowball and Fluffy were still very young. Both had just passed their first birthday.

However, surprisingly for such young cats, both were very chilled and low-maintenance.

They came and went as they pleased by standing at the window, asking to be let out or to be let back in.

Most often, they could be found snoozing on the garden furniture or hanging out in the shed at the bottom of the garden.

The Home

When we arrived, we instantly recognised the street!

We hadn’t realised when we booked this house sit, but the home was less than a minute walk from the previous home we stayed at back in October.

This time, we were staying in a large terraced property.

It was clean, had Netfix on the telly, and probably the most comfortabe bed we have ever slept in.

The choice of a small private garden or a large nearby park for us to enjoy the continuing glorious June weather made this the perfect place for us to bring our June house-sitting adventure to an end.

Where Next?

For July, August, and spilling into September.

We have been booked for a ten-week house sit!

We have a couple of commitments to fulfil in between, but this will be our longest stay so far, and it is located in what is probably our favourite city in the UK!