The Shakespeare Memorial Fountain (also referred to as The American Fountain)

The Shakespeare Memorial Fountain (also known as The American Fountain) is a commemorative clock tower incorporating horse troughs and a drinking fountain, constructed in 1886-7. It was designed by Jethro Cossins of Birmingham and gifted to Stratford-upon-Avon by the American publisher George William Childs as a dedication to William Shakespeare and in celebration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee.

The tower is built in Yorkshire stone from Bolton Wood, with its base and drinking troughs in Peterhead granite. It has a square plan with projecting buttresses placed diagonally at each of the four corners.

The structure rises to approximately 18 metres and comprises three stages. It is topped with a tall conical spire decorated with gargoyles in the form of different animals, and smaller cylindrical turrets with conical spirelets to each corner, all topped with decorative wrought-iron vanes.

The lower stage features gabled diagonal buttresses capped with statues of the British Lion and the American Eagle, each holding shields bearing the Royal arms and the Stars and Stripes respectively. Each face has an arched recess with shafts and a relief-carved tympanum over an inscription. The south side is equipped with a trefoil-headed entrance with strap hinges to a plank door, flanked by two trefoil-headed recesses which formerly contained a barometer and thermometer. The east and west sides each have a trough for horses and cattle, with smaller troughs for dogs and sheep positioned below. The north side contains a drinking fountain. All faces in the lower section are enriched with richly carved roundels depicting different flowers, fruits and vegetables.

The middle stage features a triple arcade with moulded pointed trefoiled arches on slender shafts to each face, with cylindrical turrets at each corner terminating in conical spirelets in two stages.

The top stage has gabled clock faces beneath crocketted gables with finials representing the characters "Puck", "Mustard-Seed", "Pea-blossom" and "Cobweb" from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The memorial bears multiple inscriptions across its faces. The south side reads: "THE GIFT OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN / GEORGE W. CHILDS. OF PHILADELPHIA / TO THE TOWN OF SHAKESPEARE, / IN THE JUBILEE YEAR OF QUEEN VICTORIA". The east side carries a lengthy quotation from Henry VIII, Act V, Scene IV. The west side displays a quote attributed to Washington Irving's "Stratford-on-Avon". The north face bears the shorter inscription: "HONEST WATER / WHICH NE'ER LEFT MAN IN THE MIRE". The north-east buttress records that the stone was laid by Lady Hodgson on 20 June 1887, with Arthur Hodgson (K.C.M.G.) serving as Mayor. The north-west buttress notes that the fountain was unveiled by Henry Irving on 17 October 1887.

The hooks for seasonal hanging flower baskets are attached to the building and form part of the listing, though the baskets themselves are not fixed and are therefore not included.