Oxford's 'Shark House' owner detests its new landmark designation status

2022-04-01T13:38:00-04:00

The 25-foot tall (7.6 meter) sculpture of a shark crashing through the roof of Magnus Hanson-Heine’s house in rural Oxford, England, is now a protected landmark — and he’s not happy about it.

City Council members in Oxford voted earlier in the month to add the protest artwork to its Heritage Asset Register along with 16 other sites.

Officially named the Headington Shark, the sculpture was installed on the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki in 1986 as a powerful anti-war message lobbed against the U.S. government by American ex-pat homeowner Bill Hanson-Heine and local artist John Buckley. Hanson-Heine died in 2019 and apparently passed down his grudge against the planning body, which had for years attempted to effect last night’s removal via a series of orders that were eventually halted by Department of the Environment Minister Michael Heseltine in 1992.

“Using the planning apparatus to preserve a historical symbol of planning law defiance is absurd on the face of it,” Magnus told the AP earlier this week.

Owner of famed Oxford shark house has passed

2019-04-03T16:05:00-04:00

Bill Heine, who famously put a 25 foot fiberglass shark by the sculptor John Buckley on top his house, has passed away. A BBC radio broadcaster, Mr. Heine spent a good sum of his time protecting what he saw as a fight for creativity.

Placed without planning permission in 1986, the unusual home addition sparked a 6-years long battle with the Oxford City Council. The shark was finally saved in 1992 by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Heseltine, whose inspector issued the final ruling in the shark's defense, arguing that "any system of control must make some small place for the dynamic, the unexpected, and the downright quirky."

Bill Heine in April 1987, next to his Oxford home.

During this time, Mr. Heine's shark had become an undeniable part of the local community, and as his daughter describes, "an irreplaceable (and legal) part of the Oxfordshire skyline." Today, the defiant attraction continues to draw thousands of visitors each year.

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Oxford's 'Shark House' owner detests its new landmark designation status

Owner of famed Oxford shark house has passed