The Mayor of London has branded plans for a tunnel to replace Hammersmith flyover as a brilliant idea.

Talking on LBC Radio this morning (March 3), Boris Johnson spoke about his views on the flyunder after Hammersmith and Fulham Council presented him with a feasibility study he asked them and business representative HammersmithLondon to commission last year .

Mr Johnson told listeners: "A presentation came in from H&F. They’ve been working for months on this idea of creating a new town centre in H&F.

"We’ve been listening to this for months and months thinking, 'come off it this is never going to work', and actually it is brilliant. It adds up. It’s a most fantastic scheme. We’re going to tunnelise the flyover.

"What was interesting was even the hardened TfL engineers looked at all this – they’ve been very sceptical – and they thought it was a great scheme.”

A view of King Street if the flyunder went ahead

His comments  came as the first artists' impressions showing what Hammersmith town centre could look like were released.

The before and after images show how the area around the Hammersmith Apollo, The Ark, the Novotel Hotel, King Street and St Paul's Church could look if the six lane A4 is removed and replaced with homes, offices and green space.

Their release comes after months of consultation and analysis by the council which revealed it could take just three years to build after the feasibility study showed strong support for the plans by residents and businesses, including comedian Bill Bailey .

A view of Furnivall Gardens if the flyunder went ahead

At a meeting of the council's transport select committee last month , three options were revealed:

The first option involves digging a ‘cut-and-cover’ tunnel 15 metres below the surface opposite Furnivall Gardens in the west, and opposite Hammersmith and West London College in the east.

The second and third options for longer tunnels would involve boring machines, like the Crossrail ones, to burrow 25 metres underground.

Both would start at Sutton Court Road with one option emerging at North End Road and the other at Earl’s Court Road. They also estimated that redeveloping the land freed up by a tunnel would bring in up to £1billion – some of which could help pay for the flyunder.