LITTLE more than a year after fire tore through its premises, Newcastle West bar and restaurant The Edwards is set to reopen this week.
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In a post on its Instagram page, the bar announced it would be open on Wednesday.
READ MORE: Fire guts The Edwards in Newcastle West
The Edwards was initially opened in 2014 by Silverchair bassist Chris Joannou with business partners in Good Brother's Chris Johnston, chef Harry Callinan and interior designer Tim Leveson.
With its restaurant, bar, laundromat, record store and creative area for exhibitions and events, quickly became a popular community fixture.
Joannou, who recently opened The Flotilla in Wickham, did not respond to calls from the Newcastle Herald last week about rumours the bar was set to reopening.
After the blaze on June 20, 2018, the bar posted a message saying it was "struggling to comprehend the enormity" of the devastating incident but had been "comforted, encouraged and overwhelmed by the outpouring of empathy from Newcastle and the wider community."
"It is humbling to realise that something we and The Edwards team have worked so hard to accomplish, has in fact, made such a big impact," the note read.
"This fire has stopped us in our tracks and yet has gifted us an awareness of the far reaching and previously unknown support for a project we call The Edwards.
"We are grateful that no one was hurt in the fire and that damage to the West End neighbourhood was kept to a minimum. We attribute this result completely to the actions of the fire brigade, police and other responding emergency services who did an amazing job.
"We look forward to the next phase but at this point can only take things one moment at a time."
