The man behind the vision to transform a pub into an indoor food hall is hoping it will be a destination that changes the landscape of the town centre.

Tower Street Food Hall is set to open in Trafalgar House in Tower Street - the home of the former Yates pub which has been shut for over a year.

The hall will serve a range of foods from around the world in addition to operating two bars and a children's play area.

The three-storey premises is currently undergoing a seven figure refurbishment which the owner is hoping to keep the costs of refurbishment under £2million.

Once open the new food hall will create 75 jobs with additional work for suppliers too.

The owner, Sandeep Singh, said: "A food hall is a destination.

"You go there for the experience and for the good food. We will be serving quality food and good drinks and it won't break the bank.

"It's been two years in the doing this, I started looking at places for this sort of thing and I think with Ipswich, there are a lot of things that work for the town and I think there is absolutely a market for something like this."

The food hall will feature a variety of cuisines using locally sourced ingredients including smash burgers, pizza, fried chicken, Indian - with ingredients coming from India, Sushi, Ramen and Desserts, and drinks including coffees, cocktails, local craft beers and wines.

Sandeep Singh, owner of the Tower Street Food Hall.Sandeep Singh, owner of the Tower Street Food Hall. (Image: Tom Cann)

Mr Singh said: "I do think this will change the landscape of the town centre.

The former Yates will become the food hallThe former Yates will become the food hall (Image: Tom Cann)

"With this sort of thing, the amount of money that we are putting in to it, we don't want anything to go wrong with it.

"It's a beautiful building, it ticked all the right boxes for us."

Trafalgar House was the home of Yates for more than two decades, with the building being used as a pub since 1997.

In the past it has also been used by carpet store Barnes of Ipswich, a Wetherspoons and was used during World War Two by the army.

The site currently has building work being done internally to strip out the inside before refitting it, with people working weekends inside to get the food hall ready for a hopeful opening date before Christmas.

There is hope the food hall will open by ChristmasThere is hope the food hall will open by Christmas