In the British Raj there was a district jail at South Malaka this was the place where Pandit Moti Lal Nehru was kept imprisoned, in 1930, for his leading role in the freedom movement. After independence the initial planning was to convert the jail into the district hospital of Allahabad.

But thanks to Sri Chandra Bhanu Gupta, the then Chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, these premises were handed over to the medical College and the teaching hospital of the  medical college thus came into existence here. This jail was also historic as it had witnessed the hanging of Shahid Roshan Singh ji. A statue to commemorate his sacrifice is installed in these premises. Initially both the teaching wing and hospital were established in the jail campus which was named as Swaroop Rani Nehru hospital after the wife of Pandit Moti Lal Nehru. The dissection hall of the Anatomy department was the present mortuary and the initial structure at SRN hospital was a three storey building. the hospital started with a bed strength of 176. Thereafter many changes took place and newer buildings are still being added to meet the requirements of the ever increasing specializations. The OPD building was constructed separately and soon the emergency block came into existence. The post partum building was added in 1978. The MPS building was started as the cardiac rehabilitation center and the biochemistry medical lab. The Cardiology department got its own building in 1995. The department of  Gastroenterology got its own building in 1997. The Jai Durga CT Scan center was started on wet lease in 2003-04. Construction of the trauma center was started in 2005 and it is still under construction. The new Gynaecology wing was constructed in 2006 and the Generator backup for the entire hospital was installed in 2007 by the Allahabad University when this college was a part of it. The Psychiatry building was constructed in 2008 and the radiotherapy unit in 2009. The bed strength increase steadily and today it has a strength of more than 1000 beds which is going to increase further with the functioning of the trauma center.