former BALM Paints, Port Melbourne

This Art Deco building in Port Melbourne, now used by a self storage company, was BALM Paints for much of its life.

BALM, British Australian Lead Manufacturers, made paint products for the automotive industry located nearby on Fishermen's Bend. The Port Melbourne Walk booklet produced by the Art Deco and Modernism Society indicates the factory was built in 1937 and refers to Hardie's Fibrolite Roofing Catalogue from November 1937 which lists W J Grassick as the designer.

The building has some nice deco features such as the elaborate capitals on the brick columns between the windows along the facade.

There is also a neat solution to making the flagpole standout on a low slung structure. In this case, the facade is interrupted but a squat tower bearing a porthole motif and a monumental tiered base for the flagpole.