BACKGROUND: This article explores a set of changes and continuities in relation to public health and its publics in the UK since the establishment of the Faculty of Public Health in 1972. METHODS: The article draws on historical research to produce a synthetic analysis of key changes and continuities in British public health since 1972. RESULTS: Three key areas are identified. The first centres on the issue of who has responsibility for public health. The second examines the persistence of social and racial inequalities in population health. The third considers the 'return' of infectious disease as a threat to public health. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the trend to place more responsibility for individual and collective health on the public itself, there was a proliferation in the actors and authorities involved in securing and protecting the health of the public. The strong linkages between health and structural inequality, and the challenges of addressing these, demonstrate that public health never was (and never can be) solely an individual matter. The appearance of new diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and the return of ones thought to have been conquered, like tuberculosis, raised profound questions for public health authorities and the people they cared for.