The open court of the infirmary appears to have been completed about the same time that the Chapter House and eastern range was finished, most certainly by the late 12th century. The building of the Infirmary Cloister buildings appears to have begun c. 1250 with the destruction of the of the stair housing and the building of narrow arcade walls and a central garth. After its creation, little further work was undertaken on the infirmary cloister until the late 13th/14th century, when the central garth was ornamentally planted. A number of floor resurfacing and repairs to the cloister walks were also undertaken in the 14th century. The Cloister, appears to have been rectangular in plan, measured at least 15m E-W by 12m N-S utilising the east wall of the dormitory, the south wall of the infirmary hall as part of its outer walls. The walkways were c. 2.5m wide whislt the central open garth, or garden which was surrounded by dwarf stone walls to take the arcading, measured at least 6m by 9m.

A period of major renovation occurred in the late 14th to early 15th, a programme of work roughly contempoary with the shoring up of the north side of the church and the total rebuilding and repair of the kitchen and kitchen/cellarer's range. The principal changes to the infirmary cloister involved the rebuilding of the south and north arcades. That to the south appears to have been simply replaced in its earlier form, whilst to the north a small chamber was built segregating the north walk from the rest of the arcade. The newly formed chamber appears to have served as a small office or study. Access to it was not from the cloister alleys. A doorway from the cloister garth was the only one identified during excavation; this was small and later went out of use. The creation of the chamber resulted in the rest of the cloister to the south and west becoming little more than an ambulatory passage, allowing pedestrian access from the undercroft doorway, around the southern wing and exiting via a presumed doorway to the east. In the latter part of the 15th century, the remainder of the infirmary cloister walkways were partioned off.

The last major change to the cloister was dramatic, transforming it from its original conception as an area of solitude into a suite of offices. A small room was created as an additiion to the north chamber, whilst the remaining area of the west and south arcades appears to have been a single open room. The separation of the area from the remainder of the priory complex was exemplified by the blocking of the undercroft doorway, the only form of access into the secondary cloister from the rest of the priory to the west. Finally shortly before the Dissolution the chamber was converted from a plain office into a warming room, perhaps for the private use of the administration staff. All was mostly dismantled at the Dissolution c.1538 when the area was converted into an ornamental garden.

Hicks, M., 1989, 'St. Gregory's Priory: The Church and Conventual Buildings' (Article in serial). SKE30366.

Hicks, A. & Hicks, M., 2001, St. Gregory's Priory, Northgate, Canterbury, Excavations 1988-1991 (Monograph). SKE30367.