The William Wakefield Memorial, located on the eastern end of the embankment within the perimeter fence of the Basin Reserve, commemorates William Wakefield, a key official of the New Zealand Company and a significant figure in the European colonisation of Wellington, and indeed, New Zealand.

Wakefield, who arrived in New Zealand in 1839, negotiated land purchases from Maori on behalf of the Company, and assisted in laying out the new settlement of Wellington. On his death in 1848 a group of Wellington residents, including a number of prominent men, decided to erect a monument to his memory.

The memorial, which was a Greek-like temple comprised of 8 pillars and a decorative freeze, appears to have been ordered in the early 1850s. For various reasons, including the lack of a suitable site, it was not immediately erected, and was instead stored for a number of years. In 1866 it was removed to a Wellington City Corporation yard. It was not until 1882 that a decision was made to erect it within the Basin Reserve, the city's premier sporting and municipal facility.

The structure functioned primarily as a memorial, however on the addition of a drinking fountain in 1886 it was also a useful public amenity. In time it became a distinctive and well-known feature of the Basin Reserve.

In 1917 it was moved outside the ground as part of wider renovations. From this time its condition deteriorated, though minor repairs were undertaken on a few occasions. The memorial was sandblasted and painted in 1974 but the fountain, which was not working by this point, was later removed. This work did not halt the memorial's physical decline. It was not until 2004 that the Wellington City Council allocated funding for a comprehensive restoration project, which included relocation within the boundaries of the Basin Reserve close to its original site. This work was undertaken in 2006. The memorial has now been fully restored and painted, structural issues have been addressed, and the drinking basin has been reinstated.

The William Wakefield Memorial is a rare example of a memorial erected prior to 1900 to commemorate the early settlers and settlement of New Zealand. Ordered in the 1850s, commemorating early settlers and settlement by way of erecting of monuments was uncommon even by the time of the memorial's erection in 1882. Most memorials to early settlers and settlement were erected after 1900 - often prompted by events such as centenaries. The memorial is also significant for its aesthetic, architectural, scientific and technological values; of an uncommon construction the style of the memorial is also unusual, with obelisks or statues more commonly used to commemorate individuals. The Memorial is also significant for what it tells of Wellington's and New Zealand's history. William Wakefield, although historically a controversial figure was, as a representative of the New Zealand Company, an important figure in the early European settlement of Wellington and New Zealand more generally. Finally the memorial has cultural significance as it is the oldest feature in the Basin Reserve, and has been witness to over one hundred years of local, national and international sporting events and activities.