The Prior's Lodgings consists of complex suites of accommodation. Collinson et al comments 'Within the notoriously complex plan of late medieval Canterbury precincts, the prior's quarters were unquestionably the most complex group of chambers, increasingly dispersed rather than concentrated in and around the area occupied by the convent's huge monastic infirmary to the north-east of the Cathedral church. So difficult are the architectural problems presented by the successive campaigns of building in this area of the monastic curia that no satisfactory history of the prior's apartments at Canterbury is yet in print. However, it is immediately obvious from the plentiful if scattered documentary sources that few if any decades from the early thirteenth to the early sixteenth century failed to witness some major addition to, or renovation of, the rooms at the disposal of the prior and his household'.

Although the latter already used the facilities of a camera vetus and camera nova (both located near the infirmary cloister) by the later twelfth century, perhaps the most critical stage in the highly unsystematic development of the prior's quarters was the building of a large new chapel at the end of a long building-campaign between the 1220's and 1250's. This priors chapel, finally completed during Prior Roger of St. Alphege (1258-63) time, was built over the south alley of the infirmary cloister, and extended into the cloister garth to gain extra width.

Collinson, P., Ramsey, N. & Sparks, M., 1995, A History of Canterbury Cathedral (Monograph). SKE30201.