The opening of the Royal Arcade's food hall has helped the shopping centre achieve its highest number of visitors this year. 

Based in the former Jamie Oliver restaurant, Yalm opened on November 22 and quickly had an impact on hungry shoppers. 

Its opening week saw the Royal Arcade record 62,168 visitors - an increase of 21pc from the previous week. 

Although the start of the Christmas shopping period will have seen a natural rise in footfall, shoppers have been visiting longer into the afternoon and evening since the opening of Yalm. 

“Without doubt, the attraction of Yalm has resulted in more people visiting the Royal Arcade – something we did expect but are very pleased to see has turned into a reality," said Simon Ashdown, director of LPC1, the company that manages the Royal Arcade. 

"With the Christmas decorations up, the lights switched on and the individual stores starting their festive campaigns, the opening of Yalm couldn’t have come at a better time.

"The massive increase in footfall last week shows that what we have created at the Royal Arcade is proving to be very attractive to the shoppers and diners of Norwich and we are delighted to have their support.”

Yalm is an artisan food hall that features six independent kitchens over two floors. 

Dan Searle, operations manager at Yalm, added: “We have been blown away by just how busy we were in our first week and this level of support has continued throughout this week.

"Our first floor, six-kitchen restaurant has been packed out at lunchtimes and in the evenings and we have enjoyed a really good number of customers coming into the cafe bar for coffee, pastries and trying out the Flying Saucers cheese and charcuterie conveyor belt.

"We are delighted with the number of people who have walked through our doors and I am sure many of them have gone shopping in the Royal Arcade’s stores before and after dining at Yalm."