One of B.C.'s last vestiges of the British Empire will soon become a memory.

The Bengal Lounge in Victoria's Fairmont Empress Hotel has been serving a curry lunch and dinner buffet and a whole lot of drinks for 61 years.

Its colonial feel, not to mention the tiger pelt at the entrance, serves as a reminder of Rudyard Kipling, the Raj, and everything people might love or despise about British rule over India.

On April 30, the Bengal Lounge will close permanently. It comes in the midst of a massive renovation of the Empress, which was bought by long-time Vancouver real-estate baron Nat Bosa and his wife Flora in 2014

The Bengal Lounge was originally a reading room in the Francis Rattenbury-designed hotel. It was transformed into a 3,000-square-foot lounge in the 1950s and since then, it's been a gathering spot for power brokers, including many who work kitty corner in the B.C. legislature.