Since the very days when the the British arrived and settled in Nainital, the Royal Hotel has been a defining landmark of this quaint lake town. Established in 1906 by Colonel George Edward Bridge, an officer in the East India Company, the hotel was a hill retreat catering to officers, policy makers and nobility during the British Raj.After the colonial years however, the hotel was taken over by the Indian Government and subsequently sold to the Punvani family which runs it to this day. During the early post-colonial period, the hotel witnessed it’s Renaissance, when it was revived from the ghosthouse that it had become, and transformed into a disco/night club, Nainital’s first and only for a long time.  While it may seem ironic, over the decades gone by, the Royal has undergone a complete metamorphosis, but maintains it’s nostalgic charm notwithstanding.