Watson's Hotel, a crumbling remnant of one of the grandest relics of the British Raj, has been forced to shut down more than 140 years after it was shipped over from England.

The Mumbai housing authority has urged the Grade II–A heritage structure to be evacuated before the onset of the monsoon next week and has registered the 138-year-old building in the "most dilapidated" category of its pre-monsoon survey of dangerous structures.

Built in 1871, the hotel was once a majestic structure ahead of its time that served as the grandest hotel in Mumbai – then Bombay.