This week in 1990 GPs warned that a property crisis in Hampstead threatened to engulf thousands of patients.

Doctors responsible for the welfare of about 30,000 people between Whitestone Pond and Regent's Park said there was a very real danger their practices would be forced to close, leaving their patients without a GP.

Elsewhere, more than 4,000 postal workers in north west London went on strike against a bid to bring forward the start of their working hours from 7am to 6.40am.

There were also disagreements with the Royal Mail over how a huge backlog of post would be cleared, a dispute which at the time kept letter boxes sealed.

Meanwhile, two men involved in smuggling more than £9 million of cannabis inside pigs' guts at a West Hampstead warehouse were jailed.

It was revealed how customs officers investigating the racket nearly lost the scent but ended up battling through the foul-smelling barrels which held the pigs' skins to eventually find the huge drug haul.