This article describes the origin of the Centre for History in Public Health and the significance of its location in a leading school of public health. It is in three parts: (1) A brief history of how the AIDS programme became the History Centre; (2) The distinctive approach of the Centre's staff as historians: their contribution and its difference from that of other related disciplines; and (3) A survey of the Centre's research on substance policy history, a subset of the main research thrust.