In CGP Grey's video about "Sharks!", he said "apparently shark art has a history in England". Consider this an unofficial prequel!

This is the true aftermath of a Sharknado that no-one wants to talk about

As a local I'm always proud when people talk about the headington shark, it's such a landmark installation you truly can't miss it

I was born with a Chronic illness and had to travel to and from the JR Hospital almost my entire life, with some inpatient visits lasting months. I can honestly say I used to get excited about seeing this shark as I grew up and it still brings me a smile when I see it as an adult. I never knew it's meaning, I never had any reason to explore further. I just loved the smiles it brought me on every trip. It always lifted my spirits on the way to a very grim and scary hospital visit. I LOVE THIS ARTWORK.

Decorating your house without asking your neighbors for permission, as a protest, is so British that now I need tea

Over 20 years ago, my sister and I got a bit lost in Oxford, and ended up driving down this street. We'd never heard of this, so to suddenly come across a giant shark tail, sticking out of a roof, in one of the most normal looking streets in England, was hilarious! It really made our day!

The only thing you have to watch out for when it comes to maintenance are the shark edges.

I was going to Uni that morning and imagine my face when I see Tom getting out of this house. I knew what was going on immediately. I nervously babbled ‘Hi I see your videos! Nice!’. And that really made my day!

the blahaj was by far the most important part of this video

I'm really glad the shark house has the very important blåhaj shark as part of interior decoration, wouldn't be complete without it

As an Oxford local it’s super surreal and fascinating to see you covering this. It’s a local icon but I didn’t know a lot of the history behind it.

I’m a town planner with a council in Sydney. Our unit manager is a brit, and whenever we’re hung up on small things in planning assessment he points to this and says that this was allowed to stay and not to worry about that stuff.

I grew up just around the corner from this and I must say it brought me and my brothers endless joy as children trying to figure out how it got there. My dad sportingly insisted for years that it was real, blowing our little minds.

As a renowned marine biologist I can confirm that is in fact the very rare Terraced Headed Shark.

Take it down quietly in the night and spend the next 20 years with the council demanding it's put back.

I moved to Oxford for uni and the shark is so fun! A lot of the historical sites in this city are all connected to the University of Oxford - only really used by academics who've moved to the area, or students who pass through and leave. The shark is firmly a part of the history of the 'town', a fun part of the local area where the permanent residents live and work, I really like it for that.

When I saw the title of this video I thought it was going to be about the "Sharks!" sculptures that CGP Grey did a video about. I was not expecting that there would be another shark sculpture built without planning permission in the UK

The fact that there is a blåhaj on the fireplace is one of the best bits about this house they know exactly their theme and are running with it

love that there’s a blahaj to go with it

The art i see is that the people protecting it and attacking it all passed of old age. Marvelous art.

Absolutely love how you can see this dude smiling from the very beginning as he explains the shark, like it’s gotta be an endless source of ridiculous yet positive vibes

It has already been immortalized as a key case study in planning and property law in university lectures, it being physically protected is just a footnote in its magnificence

3:25 Blahaj appearance

It's fun when I find out about new local (tourist?) spots in my area. This artistic icon is only 20 mins from my home and 5 mins from my nan's house and yet I never knew it existed until today!

Petition for “the shark in the roof” to officially replace “the elephant in the room.”

I never considered that it might be a pain to have a "protected" property. On one hand it's nice that art like this remains on the other I wouldn't want to be stuck with it.

It's so bizarre to open up youtube and see a Tom Scott video about the Shark I walk past whenever I go grocery shopping - thanks for covering this, Tom!

If it wasn't art it would easily pass as british humor. Love that!

It's got a little Blåhaj brother inside! That's precious

I was born in Oxford and lived down the road from here, when I was little we moved to Wales and I used to tell all my friends in school about this house but none of them believed me and thought I was mad. Many years have passed now and I completely forgot about it till this video popped up in my subscriptions. Guess who’s sharing this video with all their old school friends?!?!

I lived/worked around Headington for a while and it always made me giggle, I think as a university town it would be weird if Oxford didn't have something like this in the town somewhere.

Lived round the corner from this 2/3 years of the time i was at uni, always wondered what it was and stood for, but just found it funny and a cool art piece. nice to finally learn the history behind it.

This video is absolutely wild to me, because not an hour ago, while I was waiting for it to drop, I got to thinking about what kind of story Tom could possibly cover that would bring him to my neck of the woods, and I came up with the story of our local theater, and how it getting registered as a national landmark has saved it and damned it in equal measure. You see, now that it's a protected site, this 72 year old building, which is the only theater in town and has not charged above $10 a ticket for as long as I can remember, cannot be bought out and torn down to make room for a more modern setup. However, from this point on, everything from the seats to the carpet cannot be replaced, no matter how battered and worn they get, unless the owners can track down the *exact* items that were used. This means that slowly but surely, our little theater is going to die of attrition, as the owners don't have anywhere near the money it would cost to keep up with the damage of time. It's amazing to think, though, that my little corner of small-town America has even just a little something in common with a house in England that has a shark sticking out of the roof.

I live 5 minutes from that shark and I didn’t really know the history, so thank you for this video.

I know I’m half a year late but I live less than a 10 minute walk from here and I pass it everyday on the bus and knowing the history behind it makes it feel a bit more special.

I remember driving through this town many years ago when I was staying nearby before the British GP. I had to do a double take when I saw it down a side street. Its a magnificent feat of engineering and i'd always wondered, why?

3:25 Blåhaj cameo

Ah, that moment on the bus where you can tell exactly where you are because someone who hasn't been to Headington before has just glanced down the side road and said "Is that a shark?!"

Oxford City Council wanted to move the shark to the swimming pool at Cowley. The original owner of the house, and the shark, was a radio presenter for BBC Radio Oxford.

I've passed by the Headington Shark every time I've gone downtown, ever since I was born. It's an icon of my home city, more relatable and evocative to me than even the "dreaming spires" of the Oxford colleges themselves. I have the utmost respect for the family for installing and maintaining it.

Isnt his mum a bit of a hero? Big ups to all caring mothers out there.

Having grown up in Oxford and seeing the shark multiple times as a kid, I can honestly say that I'm glad it's there to stay. 😊

The leakage and any structural concerns are great examples of why you should involve an engineer in such an ambitious art project.

3:28 OMG THEY HAVE A BLAHAJ???? amazing

5:15 I’m pleased that he mentions that ‘the council’ is not a fixed thing but a group of individuals who have changed.

I wonder, how exactly does one go about installing a giant metal shark IN SECRET?

I used to live a couple of streets away and went past this every day on the bus - always fun to watch the reactions of people who didn't previously know about it!

This was my absolute favourite part of going to Oxford to visit family as a kid. It was just so big and expressive. I'm so glad it's still there.

There's a part of me that's interested in the art of the shark and the statement it makes, but I'll admit there is an even larger part of me that just says "look at the cool shark in the roof! You gotta keep the cool shark in the roof"

Lovely point about how now the planning council are part of the art no matter what they do. It has a Terry Pratchett flavor to me, like installing the art has cast a narrative spell and everyone finds themselves carried along in it helpless. The initial planning council tried to force it down to avoid the obvious geas, but once it had stood for a day, their struggles only got the headless shark's teeth to sink deeper.

I was a student at Ruskin College and would often see the shark when I walked into Headington to do my food shopping or catch a bus to Oxford. This video brought back some fond memories.

I used to live on the Main Street near the shark for a bit and used it as a reminder my stop was coming up when I took the bus home… good times.

The original owner's son was very articulate about why he thinks protection goes against the idea.

I don't understand Tom's line at 1:55 that people seem to like the shark "more than the current owner would like." The owner is the son that is being interviewed, and he seems to be just fine renting it out as a BnB and making money off it.

Government worrying about affect to neighbour Neighbour: "I'm not even mad that's amazing"

I feel like the most shark thing ever would be, if you knew it was about to be listed as a heritage site, vanish it just before it officially became one.

4:22 Tom Scott saying he wouldn’t want to be “part of the art” but he’s already a masterpiece ❤️

Once they demand it be protected, feels time to tear it down!

This is officially my second favorite shark art related British legal dispute.

This is brilliant. I love that someone just installed a shark on their roof. It also really says something about the person, which is super cool.

I like to imagine the shark on the roof is the parent of the plushie and is trying to save their child

Council needs to Symbolically request its removal. Not actually try and get it removed but request it just for the sake of the art.

I was waiting for you to do a video on the shark! We've lived a street down from it and all of Headington is VERY proud of the shark, its on drawn skylines of Oxford!

The Headington Shark is an absolute icon of Oxford, when I lived just down the road I would walk past every morning with a smile. I've been tempted to book a stay in the house since I saw it on AirBnB.

I’ve seen that shark multiple times just from randomly going past it but I never knew the whole story, this is why I love Tom Scott

3:26 BLAHAJ MY BELOVED 🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈

Imagine throwing a fit over a shark thats not even on your building. Gotta love government

I remember stumbling across this in about 1992, when I was working in Oxford, completely by chance. Utterly gobsmacked and utterly brilliant! I'm so pleased to see it's still there and still looking good.

I consider it a BLÅHAJ monument and (of course) it should be kept up for generations to appreciate. 🦈

I live 20mins away from Oxford love seeing it every time we drive past the road !

Excellent and very inspiring for me, during my renovation work.

The fact that there is an Ikea shark in the house just makes it perfect

3:30 BLÅHAJ Replay button

Bill was a character. Some of us met him in Witney (cant remember the occasion) and of course, he was a radio presenter. IIRC, he also owned a cinema in Headington which had a pair of stripey stockinged legs above it. The legs somehow made their way to Brighton to top another cinema. Theres probably another story to that.

So glad this was posted - I’ve seen this for over 25 years and always wanted to know the story behind it

Looking at how it interfaces with the actual roof I can imagine that keeping leaks under control must be an extreme challenge to say the least.

The call to the crane operator might have been one of the funniest conversations ever... "You want me to do what!??"

I would see it being listed as the ultimate form of poetic justice, at least if the person who originally made the statement was still around. Now it's just an inherited burden, but that in itself is still a testament to consequence. I do hope it becomes a nationally listed building, because it would serve as a monument of living in a society, and how owning the consequences of our actions is integral to that.

Nice portrait Tom! And kudos to the son and his mom keeping this alive.

I like how Tom felt the need for three shots including the Blahaj, two of which specifically encompassing it

I knew it was the Headington Shark without seeing the thumbnail. I used to live a couple of streets away and it's much loved in the community. The local brownies have a shark on their badges and the chippie has a shark of their own.

Lived in walking distance of the shark my whole life (and loved it) but never knew why it got put there. Thanks for giving me a new perspective on it

I absolutely love it and can remember it in the newspaper at the time

I looked out for 'the shark house' every time we made our way up to my late grandparents' house in Headington, ever since I was little. Thank you for sharing it with such a wide audience.

I remember when this was happening and installed. It was all over local news. I was 11 years old and lived just down the road. I’ve always liked it - even my conservative father did!

I love it, it looks amazing and the sentiment behind it is fantastic. I would have liked to have met his dad. He seems like the kind of guy I would really get on with. As long as the building remains structurally sound, I don't see any problem with it. Hopefully, it'll still be there for as long as humanly possible, preferably forever.

Owning a listed building is such a burden that people will do almost anything to not own a listed building. The art-deco Firestone factory on the A4 in Brentford, west London was about to be listed in 1980, but the night before the listed status was due to come in effect there was an "accidental" terrible fire that burnt it to the ground... Today there's a retail complex on the property and only the art-deco walls remain

He bought a BLÅHAJ! I approve of everything in this video

If I had a quarter for every time there was a Shark Sculpture based legal dispute in Britain, I’d have two quarters! Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice!

I am from the area and loved seeing this as a kid driving last with my mum and brothers.

I used to travel from Oxfordshire to Newquay and at one end of the journey would be this, and at the other end a B&B with a shark's head coming out of the front wall. It always seemed like a nice bit of symmetry.

I lived in close to that street for 6 years but every time I asked for the story people just used to tell me this is a story for another time, but today finally the story!

I've driven past this house many times and always wondered what prompted the owner/s to want to have a giant fish stickng out of their roof. I just took it for another English eccentricity. Now I know, after all these years! Thanks for a great video.

Thanks for bringing another lovely piece of UK to my knowledge.

The blåhaj on the mantel is the best touch

3:20 BLAHAJ

I'm not sure what is exactly on the opposite side of the Earth from that flat, but if it is a land mass, I would dearly love for someone to put a sculpture of the shark's head emerging there, and title the piece "Longshark is long."

I could see why neighbors would have been upset, but at this point this is history. And I know people love to tear down history for some reason, but it's my belief things like this should be preserved to teach our future humans of our past.

i find it funny how for bureaucrats its difficult to just ignore something, they just have an instinct need to demand its removal, approval, recording or listing

I went to Oxford a few months ago, we accidentally found this on the way to a Greek restaurant - it is crazy! 🦈