The Knutti Store opens in Goodramgate in York city centre

The Knutti Store opens in the former Northern Antiques shop at 43, Goodramgate and tells the story of Knutti a fictional Viking who arrived in Jorvik in 1030AD with his family and was granted the right to trade by by King Canute himself.

The tourist gift shop is the brainchild of and Anthony Lewis and his business partner Lei Li, who came up with the concept and designed Knutti the Jorvik Viking, whose face is on a whole range of homewares and clothing from tea towels and t-shirts to mugs, jigsaws, coasters, placemats and soft toys.

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Anthony and his husband, Jonathan Burgoyne took on the The Bishop and The Bison Boutique Hotel in Clifton Green back in 2020 and have made a success of the business, and the shop will be Anthony's first foray into retail.

Jonathan and Anthony inside their shop (Image: Haydn Lewis)

"The Bishop and The Bison keeps us pretty busy, but I wanted something to do during the day," said Anthony.

"What's York famous for? Vikings, and our guests are always talking about them. I wanted to do something different so I designed Knutti and created a story.

"I speak a lot of languages including German and I've taught myself Old Norse. The 'ti' ending means little in a cute way so his name means 'little Canute'.

"I wanted to make it as authentic as possible so any writing on the t-shirts or any of the products is in Old Norse and it means something.

"I don't know if it's going to take off, but we have excellent landlords in the York Conservation Trust and the Tudor building dates back to the 1490s."

The royal warrant (Image: Haydn Lewis)

The shop occupies the ground floor of the building and there are two further floors which are occupied by stock and a kitchen, so Anthony says there's room to grow.

The store is aimed at visitors and tourists as well as children, but the couple say they hope locals will drop by too.

Some of the products on offer at The Knutti Store (Image: Haydn Lewis)

Originally from Yorkshire, the couple lived in the USA before coming to York. Anthony has held senior positions with several well-known multinationals including Apple, Xerox and KPMG in both finance and tax roles. 

Jonathan began his career working for Hilton Hotels, becoming a director of sales for two of the largest Hilton Hotels in the UK. In 2014, he became director of sales for Two Roads Hospitality in California and joined Anthony in Texas in 2018 before they came to York in 2020.

The Knutti products come in a range of colours (Image: Haydn Lewis)

A conscious effort has been made to sell British made products with jigsaws, placemats, cushions and tea towels all sourced in the UK as well as paper bags printed in York.

The Knutti Store will be open every day except Monday from 10.30am-5.30pm and is available online at The Knutti Store -- York's Original Viking Trading Post.

Knutti himself (Image: Haydn Lewis)