This week 60 years ago employees of the John Player & Sons’ cigarette factory in Shoreditch were shocked to find it would be closing – meaning 160 workers would lose their jobs.
A spokesman for the firm said the factory had become "uneconomic" to operate.
One employee said news of the factory closing was a "bombshell".
He said: "It won't be easy for some of us to get other jobs."
The same week, four men were in court on a rape charge after two girls were taken to a house in Dalston, threatened and assaulted. One of the women said in court: "There was no way for me to get out, so I just had to do what they wanted."
Two men were also charged with attempting to rob a post office with a truncheon in Hackney Wick.
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