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A garden across the Thames? New green bridge from Olympic Cauldron …

Thomas Heatherwick’s design would be the first new crossing since the Millennium Bridge opened to the public in 2002 and would create a new route from Covent Garden to the South Bank.

It is being developed after Mr Heatherwick won a Transport for London tender for ideas to improve pedestrian access across the river.

MORE STUNNING PICTURES OF THE BRIDGE DESIGN HERE

But his imaginative approach also chimed with Mayor Boris Johnson’s ambition to create “an iconic piece of green infrastructure” on the model of the High Line, an aerial park planted on a former railway track in New York.

Mr Heatherwick said: “The idea is simple – to connect north and south London with a garden.”

And he paid tribute to the inspiration of campaigner Joanna Lumley who had been championing the idea of a Garden Bridge complete with grasses, trees, wild flowers and plants, for years.

She said she thought it would be “sensational every way – a place with no noise or traffic where the only sounds will be birdsong and bees buzzing and the wind in the trees and, below, the steady rush of water”.

Ms Lumley added: “It will be the slowest way to cross the river, as people will dawdle and lean on parapets and stare at the great cityscapes all around, but it will also be a safe and swift way for the weary commuter. I believe it will bring to Londoners and visitors alike peace and beauty and magic.”

Mr Heatherwick is now working with engineering giants Arup to develop the plans with an aim of submitting them for planning permission in spring next year. It would make 2016 the earliest possible opening date.

Mayoral advisers believe it would bring to life the comparatively quiet stretches of waterfront around Temple and immediately east of the Southbank Centre.

By encouraging pedestrians onto the new walkway, it would also make possible better cycle routes on Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges.

But the go-ahead is dependent on Mr Heatherwick raising the cash from private sponsors because the Greater London Authority will not invest public money.

Isabel Dedring, the deputy mayor for transport, said it fulfilled the Mayor’s aim of having more river crossings and creating a landmark attraction.

“The mayor has been keen to find an iconic piece of green infrastructure that can symbolise London as a high quality of life place to live,” she said.

“It is a great example of a project where in our view there doesn’t need to be a major public contribution. But if private sector funding isn’t forthcoming then the project isn’t going to be able to go ahead.”

Michele Dix, of Transport for London which is helping steer the plans through planning, said: “The bridge will help support economic activity whilst providing commuters arriving at Waterloo with alternative options to cross the river.”

The High Line was also the model of an innovative “greenway”  that this week won a competition to reduce flooding and link forgotten parks and railway arches on the Albert Embankment.

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