Headington

On the Saturday of January 22nd, I planned a walk to Headington with my housemates to see the famous Headington Shark. Although urban legend has it that the sculpture – a shark apparently crashing through the roof of a local house – was designed to spite local authorities, the reality is somewhat different. Its owner Bill Heine described the artistic intention behind John Buckley’s sculpture in the following way: “The shark was 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.” The Oxford City Council subsequently attempted to have the shark removed but was defeated when the matter escalated to the central government.

Our little group left Saint Antony’s via University Parks and Marston, making a short stop at the Orthodox Church of Saint Nicholas, and going past the absurdly expensive buildings along Jack Straw’s Lane. After seeing the shark, we went around Central Oxford Mosque, which was closed (to my mind somewhat surprisingly, as there are five prayer times a day, which means that the likelihood of making one of them is not low). We had Middle Eastern food for lunch. 


Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church in Marston
More of the same
Saint Nicholas
A house on Jack Straw's Lane
The Britannia pub
The Headington Shark
Central Oxford Mosque Society
The same

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