Companies will compete to dig up the ghosts and treasures beneath the streets of London

The 41-year-old entrepreneur then founded the Old London Underground Company to pursue his vision to renovate the disused stations, delivering revenue directly to TfL without disrupting the current rail service.

His financial proposal has been pitched to Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, and Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, and is backed by 66 MPs.

In all, 34 sites have been identified, but the first phase of his plan involves 13 flagship stations, including long-forgotten names such as Down Street, Leinster Gardens and York Road, which will be converted into art galleries, night clubs and, potentially, a National Fire Brigade museum.

Mr Chambers has four investors on board, including Duncan Vaughn-Arbuckle, the founder of Vinopolis, London’s wine museum, built into the caves under London Bridge.

He has not paid himself for five years and is selling his flat in Clapham to help finance the project. Mr Chamber has also been in talks with the Mandarin Hotel Group and West Court Real Estate - led by Vinjay Kapoor, the talent behind the Canary Wharf design.

However, TfL insist there is “no affiliation” with the Old London Underground Company and, in the run up to the public tender, will no longer allow Mr Chambers to show potential investors around the site.

A spokeswoman for TfL said, “We cannot show any prejudice ahead of a public tender.”

While Mr Chambers’s team, (pictured below)including John Ross, former chief executive of Australia’s Schneider Electric, have been attracting interest from potential investors, TfL has been converting some of the sites.

The tunnels below Clapham North are home to a herb farm, and the organisation has just signed a deal with Waitrose to run a click and collect grocery service where customers pick up goods from refrigerated lockers from Chalfont & Latimer, on the Metropolitan line, near Amersham.

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