North Alley (east to west).—This "north alley" was closed at both ends by screens, and must therefore have had some special use. From analogy with the arrangements at Durham there can be little doubt that this alley was partly appropriated to the novices.... We have curious evidence that the north alley at Gloucester was so appropriated, in the traces of the games they played at in their idle moods. On the stone bench against the wall are scratched a number of diagrams of the forms here represented:
The first is for playing the game called "Nine men's morris," from each player having nine pieces or men. The other two are for playing varieties of the game of "Fox and Geese."
"Traces of such games may generally be found on the bench tables of cloisters where they have not been restored, and excellent examples remain at Canterbury, Westminster, Salisbury, and elsewhere. At Gloucester they are almost exclusively confined to the novices' alley, the only others now to be seen in the cloister being an unfinished 'Nine men's morris' board in the south alley, and one or two crossed squares in the west alley." (Hope.)
In the north alley wall some of the lower halves of the five easternmost windows have been re-opened, and the bricks with which they were blocked removed.