The Nottingham owner of a famous property with a 25ft shark sticking out of its roof has told of his fury over council decision to give it listed status. His dad had been in a long row with the council to install it in the first place. The Headington Shark house in Oxford has ultimately been added to the city heritage registry alongside 16 other assets during a livestreamed council meeting on Wednesday evening (March 23).
The current owner, who inherited the quirky building from his dad, hoped until the last minute for a different outcome. Dr Magnus Hanson-Heine, a University of Nottingham chemistry researcher told Nottinghamshire Live: "It is really sad - it is just a very unfortunate decision, and unpleasant one. Ultimately, they [the city council] do not understand what it is. And I think they have gone ahead and done some harm. I do not think these decisions should ever be in the hands of a small group of councillors for exactly that reason."
But Dr Hanson-Heine's heartbreak is even more intense as "authority control is exactly what [his dad] was against". It all started back in 1986, when his dad Bill Heine appointed architect John Buckley to install the statue on the top of the house as a protest against “planning restrictions and censorship”.
