A decision to carry out track works on the eve of the Wimbledon tennis Championships has sparked outrage.

District line services from Earl's Court to Wimbledon, Edgware Road and Kensington (Olympia) will be suspended on June 29 and June 30 due to the repairs.

This has frustrated Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond who said this would inconvenience thousands of people trying to attend the tournament.

"I am very disappointed that TfL have chosen to close the service this weekend," he said.

"They have had years of warning of the dates for the tennis.

"Lots of visitors will be wanting to come to our area, and many people hoping to queue for ground tickets arrive over this weekend.

"I am especially annoyed as I thought we had secured an agreement from TfL to stop this happening.

"Even at this late stage the sensible thing would be to stop the works and run the service."

The annual tennis tournament begins on Monday.

A TfL spokesman said: “We apologise to District line customers for any disruption they might experience this weekend due to planned engineering work on the Wimbledon branch of the line.

"We work closely with local stakeholders to minimise disruption where possible.

"This closure will allow us to carry out vital track replacement work ahead of a busy fortnight for the District line.”

He added that the Wimbledon branch of the District line features crossover with Network Rail and South Western Railway, "which means that moving planned closures is difficult and expensive."