Golden Pagoda @ Chinatown, London . Paul Baker's . Wildy & Sons Ltd . Barclays Cycle Hire

Situated right in the heart of Chinatown, ‘Golden Pagoda’ is a restaurant which promises efficient service and wonderful food-a combination that many other restaurants in Chinatown have yet to master. Famous for its wide variety of dim-sum which is made by Wai Sui Yu a talented chef, especially when it comes to steamed dumplings. Highlights included crunchy Chiu Chow fun gor (sticky rice flour dumplings) packed with diced pork and peanut, and gorgeous scallop dumplings topped with spicy XO chilli sauce. Pan-fried pork dumplings also impressed, each tiny crescent was filled with moist meat and tasty soup stock. This restaurant promises never to disappoint whether you are looking for a quick meal just before you head to the theatre or if you are looking for a decent sit-down meal complimented by friendly efficient customer service.



Golden Pagoda @ Chinatown

15a Gerrard St, Chinatown,

W1D 6JD London

Tel: 020 7434 2888

Travel: Leicester Square or Piccadilly Circus tube
Opening hours Mon-Thur 12noon-12.30am, Fri-Sat 12noon-1.30am, Sun 11am-11pm.
Dim sum served daily 12noon-5.30pm

 

Dim Sum price ranges from
GBP$2.30-GBP$3.70 per plate

Dried Shrimp Cheong Fun

Pan-fried Carrot Cake

Char Siew Bao

Xiao Long Bao

Prawn Dumpling

Steamed Pork Ribs

Stewed Chicken Claws

Siew Mai

Braised Clear Vermicelli 'Fu Jin' Style, GBP$6.00

Preserved Egg and Shredded Pork Congee, GBP$5.00

Total paid for Dim Sum, GBP$39.90

Travel: Leicester Square or Piccadilly Circus tube to dine at Golden Pagoda

We travel around Chancery Lane......Lincoln's Inn/ Wildy and Sons Ltd World Legal Bookshop/ The General Council of the Bar

 

PAUL Baker's

296 High Holborn,

Holborn London, WC1V 7JH

Telephone: 020 7430 0693

*Irresistible pastries, ""crusty"" breads and ""delicious coffee"" make this ""surprisingly characterful"" chain.

“Bread is really a part of French culture,” says Francis Holder, Chairman of PAUL “In France we are used to going to the bakery every day to buy fresh bread.” To the French, bread is a vital component of almost every meal, and should be treated with respect and imagination. At PAUL our philosophy is very simple: excellent bread depends on excellent ingredients and time-honoured methods of production. Their recipes for bread, viennoiserie and patisserie have been handed down through the family for over one hundred years. Their bakers are true artisans, with years of training. Their shops give the impression of always having been there, whether they are designed as a rustic village bakery, all brick, beams and baskets, or like an Empire salon with reclaimed panelling, hand-painted wallpaper and chandeliers. Each is a little piece of France, and a delightful refuge from the outside world. PAUL has always been a community bakery, bringing the authentic taste of real French baking to its local customers. Whether they meet at our cafes to chat with friends over a coffee and a pastry, or take our food home to enjoy with friends, we are dedicated to sharing our passion for food with our customers all over the world.

Last year, in the UK alone, PAUL served 777,504 retail customers, 160,563 covers in their two café restaurants, sold 125,821 Flûtes, 142,821 400 gram loaves, 120,299 croissants, 27,880 strawberry tartelettes, 63,218 capuccinos, 16,723 large fruit tartes and used over 168,075 kilos of Camp Rémy flour to make its white bread

Lincoln's Inn

WILDY AND SONS LTD
Law Booksellers since 1830

Lincoln's Inn Archway Carey Street, London WC2A 2JD, UK
 

The General Council of the Bar

Barclays Cycle Hire (BCH) is a public bicycle sharing scheme that was launched on 30 July 2010 in London, United Kingdom. The scheme's bicycles are informally referred to as Boris bikes, after Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. BCH commenced operations in July 2010 with 5,000 bicycles and 315 docking stations distributed across the City of London and parts of eight London boroughs.[1] The coverage zone spans approximately 17 square miles (44 km2), roughly matching the Zone 1 Travelcard area. Currently there are some 6,000 'Boris Bikes' and 400 docking stations in the BCH scheme, which has been used for more than 4 million journeys to date

Initially, BCH required initial payment of registration and membership fees to be paid in exchange for an electronic access key, but on 3 December 2010 this was changed to allow casual cycle hires by non-members who have a valid credit or debit card

The project is expected to cost £140 million for planning and implementation over six years, and is hoped to be the only Transport for London (TfL) system to fully fund its annual cost of operation, a goal originally estimated to take two to three years. The scheme is sponsored by Barclays bank, which is contributing £25 million (18 per cent of the scheme's total cost) over five years to the project's funding, and have launched a free mobile app called Barclays Bikes.

The scheme is contracted to and operated by Serco. The cycles and the docking stations are built in Canada and are based on the Bixi cycle rental system that operates in Montreal.

Credit for developing and enacting the Barclays bicycle share scheme has been a source of controversy. London mayor Boris Johnson claimed credit for the plan, although the initial concept was announced by Johnson's predecessor Ken Livingstone, during the latter's term in office. Johnson has said that he "hoped the bikes would become as common as black cabs and red buses in the capital.

Regular users of the scheme can register on the TfL website and sign up for one of three levels of access: daily, weekly or yearly. Users are then sent a key in the post to operate the docking stations which they must activate before they use it for the first time – a key costs £3, and up to four can be registered under a single account. Scheme members insert the membership key into a docking point key slot; an amber light indicates that the account is being verified, then a green light indicates that the cycle can be undocked.

From 3 December 2010 the scheme has also been made available to casual users who have not registered with TfL. Those with a Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card (with Chip and PIN) can go to their nearest docking station and follow the simple on screen instructions at the terminal to release a bike. Once the user has purchased their access period (for either 24 hours or seven days) the first 30 minutes of any journey will be free of usage charges.

Cycles:

Each cycle is fitted with features designed to provide comfort and safety for the user, including:

• Puncture-resistant tyres to increase durability.
• Brakes on each wheel hub.
• A three-speed hub gear operated by a twist grip on the right handlebar.
• A chain guard, avoiding the necessity for trouser clips.
• Dynamo-powered flashing front and rear lights which are illuminated when the bicycle is being ridden and remain on for a minimum of two minutes after it has stopped.
• A bell on the left handlebar.
• A small luggage rack in front of the handlebars with elastic cord to secure possessions.
• Adjustable saddle height.
• Mudguards.
• A stand which can be kicked down into place using the left foot.

The cycles are not provided with locks (unlike the Vélib' scheme in Paris), nor do they come with helmets. If there is a fault with a cycle, riders are advised to dock it at the nearest station and press the red 'fault' button on the docking point within ten seconds; they can then take out another bike at no extra cost.

The cycles have been deliberately "geared down" to compensate for their weight, to make hill climbing easier, and to provide a way of limiting their top speed. With the standard 38 tooth front cog and a larger than standard 23 tooth rear sprocket the setting is 32 gear inches in 1st gear, 44 gear inches in 2nd gear, and 60 gear inches in 3rd gear. This gearing is about 22% lower than would be usual on a three-speed cycle of this sort.

Docking stations consist of a terminal and docking points where users pick up and return cycles. The terminal at each docking station contains a screen allowing users to:

• hire a cycle if the user does not have a key;
• print a record of their journey;
• find other nearby docking stations – if one is full or empty;
• get extra time if they need to return the cycle to another docking station; and
• see a local street map, review scheme costs, the code of conduct and translated information.

During high load hours the bikes are moved from the busiest stations to the emptiest using electric vehicles with zero CO2 emissions. There are a number of applications for mobile phones to help users find the nearest station.

Reception and criticisms
BCH debuted with great fanfare, with over 90,000 users registering one million cycle rides being taken in the first ten weeks of operation. The millionth journey rider was awarded four annual memberships of the scheme for five years for free.

In the first three months of the scheme, 95 per cent of journeys were under half an hour, earning Transport for London no revenue besides access fees. The scheme generated £323,545 in revenue from journeys in the first 96 days. Only 72,700 of the first 1.4 million journeys earned any revenue, with 44 per cent of income coming from individuals who were charged £150 "late return" fees. At an average of only £3,370 income per day from journeys, administrators have acknowledged that the scheme will have to grow substantially over the next five years in order to meet its estimated revenue projections.

In particular, the BCH scheme has been criticised for allowing riders to have unlimited free periods of use by docking the bike every thirty minutes at a station (the first 30 minutes' use are free) resulting in a dependence upon late fees and penalties to make up revenues. Other users have complained of computer issues, erroneous charges, and problems with docking stations. The system also does not enable transport to the suburbs, and TfL has admitted that the BCH scheme is "best for short journeys". Some users have also found the bikes too heavy and unwieldy, at 23 kilograms (51 lb).

In June 2011, TfL issued a 'critical improvement plan' to the BCH contractor, Serco, demanding immediate improvements in service, and in a comment to the press a TfL spokesman stated that "the service it (Serco) has provided for our Barclays Cycle Hire users has not reached the consistently high standards we expect," adding "We expect to see immediate improvements. "SERCO has in turn admitted that "some aspects of the service still need to be improved."

Access Fee and Usage Charges

 

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