Even people who live in more ordinary settings
sometimes can’t resist doing something to make them
stand out from the crowd. One extreme example of this
is Bill Heines’ house in Headington, Oxfordshire. Until
one morning in 1986, his house looked much like all the
others in his street, when suddenly overnight a 7.5 m
long fibreglass shark appeared to have crashed through
the roof. The shark was a sculpture by local artist John
Buckley. At first some people complained that it might be
dangerous or that it spoilt the look of the neighbourhood,
but engineers checked that the sculpture was safe and
the ‘Headington shark’ has become a well-known and
popular landmark. It seems that no matter where you live,
you can always do something to make sure your house
says something about who you are.