The London Garden Bridge, which cost the taxpayer more than £50 million, was "a failure for charity" that undermines public trust, the Charity Commission has ruled.

The watchdog branded the mothballed project a "high profile and expensive failure" which "never materialised", in a report published by Tuesday.

Around £53 million of public money was spent by the registered charity, the Garden Bridge Trust, which was set up to build and run the London crossing over the River Thames.

The commission added that the waste of taxpayers' money by the charity, which "produced no demonstrable public benefit or impact, represents a failure for charity which risks undermining public trust".

Baroness Tina Stowell, chairwoman of the Charity Commission, said: "Londoners and taxpayers will legitimately feel angry and let down by the waste of millions of pounds of public money on a charitable project that was not delivered.

"I understand that anger and am clear that this represents a failure for charity that risks undermining public confidence in charities generally.

"While the charity was not mismanaged, the public would also expect, as I do, that the right lessons are learnt from this case, so that we don't see a similar failure arising in future."