As part of a shift that has seen warehouse spaces repurposed in Chicago and New Jersey and purpose-built ‘vertical farms’ being erected in Sweden, growers in Central London have completed the first phase of their own pioneering project - growing herbs and salad leaves in disused tunnels 30 metres below the capital’s streets.

Urban food production is seen by many as a way to address major challenges facing humanity; from urbanising populations worldwide, to questions around land use, pollution and reliance on fossil fuels, moving food growing into urban environments offers a range of solutions, though urban growing - especially on commercial scales - remains in its infancy.

On Monday, the Growing Underground group welcomed reporters from Sky into their cutting edge urban farm beneath Clapham to unveil the first completed phase of their project. The GU Farm is set to begin producing pea shoots, celery, herbs and leaves for London restaurants from July.

Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux Jr has backed the farm, which is situated in tunnels that sheltered Londoners from the blitz during the Second World War. The farm’s creators, Richard Ballard and Steven Dring, claim that theirs is the world’s first subterranean growing enterprise.

Growing under LED lights, in a sealed clean-room environment with a high-tech ventilation system, the GU veg is fed by a sophisticated hydroponic system, which supplies plants with water and nutrients through a bed of hemp. The GU growers are renting their 600m2 tunnel from Transport for London.

Though the first crops are set to go on the market in July, it has taken 18 months of hard work to arrive at this point, including research and growing trials. This first phase - cultivating micro-veg and herbs - has taken more than £750,000 investment to realise.

However, as with Chicago’s Farmedhere project, which opened its doors in 2013, produce at GU Farms is grown under artificial light; whilst the growers maintain that this allows them complete control over growing conditions, critics have questioned the green credentials and cost-effectiveness of growing in this way, rather than 'greenhouse' growing.

Even so, GU maintains that their enterprise carries significant environmental benefits; the growers said their state of the art system means food can be produced using very little energy, all of which is sourced from green energy suppliers. They added that their underground farm allows crops to be grown year round in a pest and disease-free environment.

Growing Underground's pitch, produced last year, which outlines many of the ideas behind the project: