The Buxton Memorial Drinking Fountain is an important physical reminder of the extraordinary campaign waged to end the slave trade. Designed by prolific church architect S.S.Tuelon as a public drinking fountain in 1865, it was erected in Parliament Square by Charles Buxton in memory of his father, the abolitionist MP Thomas Fowell Buxton.

Buxton was an MP who took over as the leader of the abolitionist movement in the House of Commons after William Wilberforce retired in 1825. He led the parliamentary campaign to finally abolish slavery in the British Empire. He also formed the Anti-Slavery Society in 1823 along with Wilberforce, Zachary Macaulay and Thomas Clarkson.

The fountain, originally erected at a cost of £1,200, was removed from the Square in 1949 when Victorian Gothic design had few admirers, and re-erected in Victoria Tower Gardens in 1957. By 2005 the fountain was no longer working and restoration works were carried out. The restored fountain was unveiled in 2007 as part of the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the act to abolish the slave trade.