Headington Shark Explained

Untitled 1986
Artist:John Buckley
Year:1986
Type:Sculpture
Material:Painted fibreglass
Height Imperial:25
Metric Unit:m
Imperial Unit:ft
City:Headington, Oxford
Italic Title:no

The Headington Shark (proper name Untitled 1986) is a rooftop sculpture located at 2 New High Street, Headington, Oxford, England, depicting a large shark embedded head-first in the roof of a house. It was protest art, put up without permission, to be symbolic of bombs crashing into buildings.

Description and location

The shark first appeared on 9 August 1986, having been commissioned by the house's owner Bill Heine, a local radio presenter.[1] The sculpture was inspired by Heine hearing American warplanes flying from Upper Heyford near Oxford on their way to bomb Libya in retaliation for its attacks on American troops, and it was put up as a protest against the bombing, as well as a statement against nuclear weapons, with the shark being used as a metaphor for falling bombs.[2] [3]

The shark was designed by sculptor John Buckley and constructed by Anton Castiau, a local carpenter and friend of Buckley. Heine said, "The shark was to express someone feeling totally impotent and ripping a hole in their roof out of a sense of impotence and anger and desperation... It is saying something about CND, nuclear power, Chernobyl and Nagasaki".[4] The sculpture was erected on the 41st anniversary of the dropping of the Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

The painted fibreglass sculpture weighs 4long cwt,[4] is 25feet long,[5] and is named Untitled 1986 (written on the gate of the house).[6] It took three months to build.[7] The structure is in deliberate contrast with its otherwise ordinary suburban setting.

For the occasion of the shark's 21st anniversary in August 2007, it was renovated by the sculptor[1] following earlier complaints about the condition of the sculpture and the house.[8]

On 26 August 2016, Heine's son Magnus Hanson-Heine bought the house in order to preserve the shark.[9] In July 2017, Bill Heine was diagnosed with leukaemia;[10] he died on 2 April 2019.[11] The property has been run as an Airbnb guesthouse since 2018. Magnus also runs a website for general information and inquiries about the shark.[12]

In 2022, the Oxford City Council made the sculpture a heritage site for its "special contribution" to the community, despite objection by Hanson-Heine,[13] who stated, "Using the planning apparatus to preserve a historical symbol of planning law defiance is absurd."

Council opposition

The shark was controversial when it first appeared. Oxford City Council tried to have it taken down on grounds of safety, and then on the grounds that it had not given planning permission for the shark, offering to host it at the local swimming pool instead, but there was much local support for the shark.[14] Eventually, the matter was taken to the central government, where Tony Baldry, a minister in the Department of the Environment, who assessed the case on planning grounds, ruled in 1992 that the shark would be allowed to remain as it did not result in harm to the visual amenity.[1] [15] Michael Heseltine's planning inspector, Peter MacDonald, investigated and ultimately came out in favour of keeping the sculpture, with an official ruling that has gained legendary status among town planners for its defence of art:

"In this case it is not in dispute that the shark is not in harmony with its surroundings, but then it is not intended to be in harmony with them", wrote Macdonald in his official ruling. "The council is understandably concerned about precedent here. The first concern is simple: proliferation with sharks (and heaven knows what else) crashing through roofs all over the city. This fear is exaggerated. In the five years since the shark was erected, no other examples have occurred ... any system of control must make some small place for the dynamic, the unexpected, the downright quirky. I therefore recommend that the Headington Shark be allowed to remain."[16]

Media appearances

Bill Heine wrote a short book about the shark, which was published in 2011.[17]

In 2013, the sculpture was the subject of an April Fools' Day story in the Oxford Mail, which announced the establishment by Oxford City Council of a fictitious £200,000 fund to support the creation of similar sculptures on the roofs of other homes in the area.[18]

In 2018, students from Oxford Brookes University created a magazine called 'The Shark', inspired by the Headington Shark.[19]

See also

Further reading

. Bill Heine . 2011 . The Hunting of the Shark . Oxford . Oxfordfolio . 978-0-9567405-2-6.

External links

51.7588°N -1.2132°W

Notes and References

  1. News: Shark comes of age. https://web.archive.org/web/20090109174743/http://archive.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/2007/8/8/178718.html. dead. 9 January 2009. 8 August 2007. Oxford Mail. 17 January 2010.
  2. Web site: In Memory of the Englishman Who Kept a Shark on His Roof . Lou . Stoppard . The New Yorker . 5 May 2019 . 26 March 2022 . 14 April 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220414155418/https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/in-memory-of-the-englishman-who-kept-a-shark-on-his-roof . live .
  3. News: Headington Shark: The story behind Oxford's quirkiest landmark . Miranda . Norris . 7 February 2021 . 26 March 2022 . 24 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220324085419/https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/19066263.story-behind-oxfords-headington-shark/ . live .
  4. Web site: The Headington Shark. 10 October 2009. Unofficial Headington Website. 18 January 2010. 27 December 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091227000413/http://www.headington.org.uk/shark/. live.
  5. News: In praise of... the Headington shark. 9 August 2007. The Guardian. 17 January 2010. 19 February 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140219062407/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/aug/09/comment.comment. live.
  6. Web site: The Headington Shark, Oxford. www.headington.org.uk. 3 April 2019. 27 December 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091227000413/http://www.headington.org.uk/shark/. live.
  7. News: Mohdin . Aamna . 'It went in beautifully as the postman was passing': the story of the Headington Shark . 7 April 2019 . 7 April 2019 . The Guardian . 7 April 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190407165118/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/apr/07/it-went-in-beautifully-as-the-postman-was-passing-the-story-of-the-headington-shark-bill-heine . live .
  8. News: Shabby shark house angers residents . 12 December 2003 . Oxford Times . 17 January 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070518062952/http://archive.theoxfordtimes.net/2003/12/12/16187.html . 18 May 2007 .
  9. Web site: "Why I snapped up the Headington shark house", The Guardian, 12 March 2017 . 23 March 2017 . 23 March 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170323165827/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2017/mar/12/why-i-snapped-up-headington-shark-house-john-buckley-sculpture . live .
  10. News: Hughes . Tim . 9 November 2017 . Oxford Mail . Bill Heine: 'Doctors have given me 18 months to live - and I've already had three of them' . 24 October 2022 . 24 October 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221024204307/https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/15649376.bill-heine-doctors-given-18-months-live---already-three-them/ . live .
  11. News: 4 April 2019 . The Telegraph . Bill Heine, journalist and broadcaster who made waves when he put a fibreglass shark on the roof of his house – obituary . 24 October 2022 . 24 October 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221024204310/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/04/04/bill-heine-journalist-broadcaster-made-waves-put-fibreglass/ . live .
  12. Web site: "The Shark House", Home Owners Website, 17 October 2021 . 18 October 2021 . 18 October 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211018171703/https://www.headingtonshark.com/ . live .
  13. News: Oxford house with shark sculpture on roof made heritage site despite owner’s objection . Associated Press . 25 March 2022 . The Guardian . 26 March 2022 . 26 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220326112106/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/mar/25/oxford-house-with-shark-sculpture-on-roof-made-heritage-site-despite-owners-objection . live .
  14. News: Let's salute fibreglass fish and wacky artists. Purves. Libby. Libby Purves. 9 August 2007. The Times. 17 January 2010. 26 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210526130736/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/. live.
  15. News: Officials reprieve shark for art's sake. MacKinnon. Ian. 22 May 1992. The Independent. 2.
  16. Web site: 7 April 2019 . 'It went in beautifully as the postman was passing': the story of the Headington Shark . 4 December 2022 . the Guardian . en . 4 December 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221204225753/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/apr/07/it-went-in-beautifully-as-the-postman-was-passing-the-story-of-the-headington-shark-bill-heine . live .
  17. Book: Heine, Bill.. The hunting of the shark. 2011. OxfordFolio. 9780956740526. Oxford. 773696300.
  18. News: Jennings. Tom. Shark 's tale is given £200k of added bite. The Oxford Mail. 1 April 2013. 6 June 2013. 23 April 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230423023510/https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=UKNB&docref=news/14565BA780639FE8&f=basic. live.
  19. Web site: The Shark . 27 October 2022 . 23 April 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230423023530/https://www.facebook.com/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsharkoxford%2F . live .

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