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New High Street in the Oxford suburb of Headington is an ordinary street full of ordinary houses. All, that is, except for No 2, which has a completely realistic, life-size shark plunging through its roof. It is the most wonderful joke, made even funnier by being nowhere near the sea.

The shark was made by sculptor John Buckley for the house’s owner, radio journalist Bill Heine. They didn’t attempt to get planning permission – but it did require an enormous amount of planning. The shark was made in Buckley’s studio on a chicken farm 20 miles away. Heine got two firemen to make a discreet hole in his roof. A farm hand was hired to drive the shark on a tractor, and two cranes and a team of conspirators were there to meet him when he arrived at 6.30 am one Saturday morning in August 1986.  

Most of the neighbours were amused, though not all. One of the dissenters, Mrs Olivia Elsworth of North Oxford, wrote: ‘Your sheer impudence and effrontery is classic, coming as it does from an all-time law breaker. I ask whether we can all have an assortment of animals protruding from our roofs.’ Oxford council didn’t like it either, and issued a notice to remove the shark. However, 311 people, including 51 from the street, petitioned for it

 

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