Opened on 28 June 1928, New Farm distributed 11000 volts AC power to a network of eleven suburban tramway substations erected in the 1920s and 1930s.

[1] The Paddington substation was automatic, equipped with an 1100 KVA transformer, a British-Thomson-Houston 1000 kW rotary converter, switchgear, support services, and an overhead crane (designed by the Tramways Department).

The substation received 11000 volts AC electricity from the New Farm Power station, via an underground feeder cable.

The building has a heavy cornice, feature panels of rough render and a base which is scribed to suggest large size stone blocks.

[1] Internally the building has concrete floors, painted brick walls and steel beams to the roof, with metal covers to the panels of louvres and pink glass inserts to the centre of the sash windows.

The east end of the space has a raised floor accessed via a steep metal stair with a more recent steel pipe railing.

The feeder cables were supported externally by large curved brackets on the east wall which remain intact with insulators.

The Paddington Substation is important in demonstrating part of the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history, in that it provides evidence of Brisbane's early 20th century tramway system and its contribution to the growth of the inner western suburbs; and has had a close association with the development of Brisbane's electricity supply system.

In elements of the fabric and design, the building demonstrates now rare evidence of the electrical system arrangement and working of an interwar, rotary converter type, tramways substation in Brisbane.

The substation is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a small scale industrial building designed for a prominent urban location.

[1] The building has a special association with the work of tramways architect RR Ogg and chief engineer W Arundell.