June 26th, 2010 – A day to remember

Beautiful weather, World Cup on the T.V, a packed campsite and hundreds of friends, well wishers, regulars, superstars and little green men
settled down for a day of good music, conversation, laughter and fun to celebrate two hundred years of The Barge Inn
– probably the most famous pub in the Universe!

Adrian and June cut the cake.

A beautiful celebration cake courtesy of Honeystreet Ales.

What a fabulous day – but not all the pub's chums could make it.

The refined ones wrote:

“I hope that you will all have a very happy day on the 26th June” - HM The Queen, Buckingham Palace.

“Very sadly, other long-standing commitments that day mean he is unable to join you. He is so sorry.” - HRH, The Prince of Wales.

“The Princes send you their best wishes” - Prince William & Prince Harry.

“The Prime Minister really appreciated this invitation” - 10, Downing Street.

“Best wishes for the Barge Inn” - Ambassador Liu Xiaoming, Embassy of The People's Republic of China.

The US Ambassador, Louis B Susman also phoned to wish The Barge well, but was unable to attend – perhaps to show solidarity and avoid a diplomatic incident with the Chinese! Or perhaps not...

“We do hope you have a wonderful time” - Sir Terry Leahy, Chief executive Tesco Plc ( A shame he couldn't come – Adrian had to get the sausages from Lidl).

“Best wishes for a successful celebration” - Lady Douro, The Royal Ballet School.

"I hope you have a fun bicentennial celebration" - Sir Cliff Richard.

“On behalf of everyone at Arsenal football club I send you best wishes, sorry I can't make it, I'm either at the World Cup Finals or away on Summer break” - Theo Walcott

(Sorry Theo, it turned out to be your Summer break; we missed you at the World Cup!)

Our theatrical friends also telephoned:

Louis 'It would have been a weird weekend' Theroux
Esther 'Thats life' Rantzen
John 'Twinkle Toes' Sergeant

The Barge's military friends sent top secret communications that they would have to make a tactical withdrawl: