Wimbledon could look more like an Alpine ski resort than a London town if one architect's dream of installing a cable car comes to fruition.

The construction would ferry passengers high above the ground between the town centre and the village.

It is one of Wimbledon Civic Forum's suggestions for transforming the area in time for the 2012 Olympics, when the All England Club will host the tennis events.

Local architect Marcus Beale is chairman of the forum, where the suggestion was first mooted in 2003.

"It was one of those crazy ideas we put on the list and almost forgot about, but now people are very enthusiastic," he said.

"There's a big gap of about 500 yards between the town and the village, and walking up it is a rather isolating experience. The cable car would make the most boring bit into the most exciting."

Mr Beale is now setting up a study to look into the feasibility of the idea.

His confidence has been boosted by a similar project in the French ski-ing village of Motarret, where a cable car apparently runs quietly past people's homes without disturbing residents.

"If a small village in France can do it and can afford it, why can't Wimbledon?" he added.

"This could be our own little London Eye."

The costs are still be to be worked out, but he is hoping that the cable car would finance itself once advertisers get involved and if users pay to travel on it.

He is backed by Councillor Maurice Groves, who said: "It would be a wonderful landmark and would join the village and the town centre together.

"Whether it's feasible, I don't know, but maybe it just needs that spark of imagination."

Structural engineers are more doubtful, however.

Andy Barrett, of Pole Associates in High Street, Wimbledon, said: "They're dreaming. It would be hard to get planning permission because of the safety aspects. But technically, it's possible."