Headington Shark

The Headington Shark 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. The shark first appeared on 9 August 1986, having been commissioned by the house's owner Bill Heine, a local radio presenter. 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.