The Headington Shark
Introduction
The photograph on this page of The Headington Shark by Natasha Ceridwen de Chroustchoff as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
The Headington Shark
Image: © Natasha Ceridwen de Chroustchoff Taken: 1 Mar 2009
Justly famous worldwide although now barely meriting a passing glance from the locals, this art installation/political symbol has pierced the roof of 2 New High Street since 1986 when then-cinema owner, now radio presenter, Bill Heine commissioned sculptor John Buckley to use his (Heine's) house for something "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." As might be expected Oxford City Council took exception to the breach of planning permission but eventually, after attracting comment high and low, the shark was given authority to remain and celebrated its 21st birthday in 2007. See http://www.headington.org.uk/shark/
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.758872
Longitude
-1.213083