'It went in beautifully as the postman was passing': the story of the Headington Shark

The fibreglass fish in the roof of an Oxford house was commissioned in 1986 by Bill Heine, who died last week

One April evening in 1986, Bill Heine was sat on the steps opposite his newly purchased terraced house in Oxford, drinking a glass of wine, when he turned to his friend and asked a simple question: “Can you do something to liven it up?”

His friend, the sculptor John Buckley, provided an answer in the shape of a 8 metre (25ft) shark which would sit on his roof, perpetually appearing as though it had just crashed into the house from the sky. The fibreglass fish, which became known as the Headington Shark after the Oxford suburb, led Heine, a local journalist and businessman who died last week, into a six-year legal battle with the local council.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2KgjJvT
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