It was designed by Walter Frederick White, City Architect's Department and Municipal Council of Sydney and built during 1930 by J Rutherford.

349 is a purpose designed and built structure dating from c. 1930, constructed by the Municipal Council of Sydney to supply power to consumers in the Randwick area.

From the late 1920s on there was enormous expansion in electricity provision within the Sydney region, driven by the suburban growth of the 1920s and 1930s.

The MCS supplied electricity to retail customers around the inner city, inner west and lower north shore and provided bulk power to outer western and northern suburbs such as Penrith, Hornsby and Manly.

The scale of SCC's operations consistently made it the largest local authority in Australia throughout the second half of the 20th century.

While early substations were often purpose-designed and built for a specific location, by the late 1920s the trend was for standardised designs built to a similar size and generally designed to fit on a standard suburban subdivision block, typically 100–200 square metres (1,100–2,200 sq ft).

One-off designed substations did continue to be built well into the mid-20th century thought these tended to be restricted to what the SCC referred to as "high class" suburbs in Sydney's east.

While in the early years of network construction many substations had unique characteristics and were sited in response to a particular need, from the late 1920s standardised designs were generally used and expansion was based on a need to establish and expand the electricity grid rather than in response to localised or site-specific issues.

From that point on, the freestanding metal kiosk-style substation was progressively introduced, while buildings, where they were constructed, tended towards strictly functional unadorned brick enclosures.

By contrast, the modern trend is to make substations essentially invisible, through incorporating them into larger buildings, placing them wholly underground or within anonymous small steel boxes which tend to be ignored in urban environments.

The ELPSC substations tend to be functionalist brick boxes with only the slightest degree of architectural detailing or ornamentation, whereas the substations constructed by municipalities, while often reusing the same underlying design with minor variation, tend to be more finely detailed and in many instances are designed to match the architecture of the surrounding area.

One side wall has a personnel door and a raised gable roofed ventilation turret with simulated windows, balcony and ornamental ironwork, and decorative arch motifs forming the supporting brackets.

The ventilation panels are formed by curved concrete or ceramic blocks set into what are window spaces for metal louvres in other similar designs.

[1] The substation was designed by the City Architect's Office of the Municipal Council of Sydney and built c. 1930 to distribute power to consumers in response to the strong residential growth in the surrounding suburbs in the 1920s and 1930s.

[1] It is a fine example of the high standard of work of the City Architect's Office of the Sydney Municipal Council, which was conscious of the need to erect substations suitable to the urban environment of the time.

It demonstrates the Council's express policy of constructing finely designed buildings in areas it considered to be "high class" suburbs and is testament to the past creative endeavour of electricity providers in applying architectural values to utilitarian structures.

White is known to have been responsible for the substantial and sympathetic 1929 extensions to the Interwar Art Nouveau/Art Deco styled Auburn Zone Substation No.

[1] The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.

It demonstrates the Council's express policy of constructing finely designed buildings in areas it considered to be "high class" suburbs and is testament to the past creative endeavour of electricity providers in applying architectural values to utilitarian structures.

Both substations were designed by the WF White, City Architect's Office, Municipal Council of Sydney in the Mediterranean/Spanish Mission style.

[1] The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

[1] The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.