John Gower's long-standing association with the community of Augustinian canons at the priory of St Mary ‘Over(e)y’ in Southwark is variously documented, but the influence of this singular relationship has not always been fully considered in studies of the poet's literary activities. In terms of internal textual evidence, for instance, G. C. Macaulay signalled the technical use of corrodium in book IV (line 215) of the Vox Clamantis as a possible reflection of the poet's allowance of a corrody by the priory for his sustenance – probably in return for an endowment to the community. More significantly, while arguments put forward by Macaulay and John Fisher in favour of Gower's reliance on the library and a possible scriptorium at the priory maximized the forms of this association, M. B. Parkes and A. I. Doyle have challenged these views and foregrounded other factors explaining patterns of revision and scribal collaboration in Gower manuscripts. But the arguments of Parkes and Doyle are centred on manuscript production and revision per se, and their case against the idea of a ‘Gower scriptorium’at the priory does not invalidate the notion that Gower may have made the most of books at Southwark – a theory which has been floated before – nor that Augustinian canons from St Mary and elsewhere may have been instrumental in the dissemination of the poet's works. In his memorial lecture for the great Gower scholar Jeremy Griffiths, Ralph Hanna pointed out that some palpable Augustinian connections ‘seem nonetheless worth pursuing’: certainly such connections extend beyond the missal bequeathed by Gower for use at the altar of the chapel of St John Baptist in the priory, which once stood adjacent to the north transept of the priory church and which was erected on the funds of the poet who saw to his spiritual needs by founding a chantry therein. This essay – in more than one sense only a critical overview – addresses the need for a fresh consideration of a ‘Southwark, or Augustinian, Gower’ through an examination of the manuscript evidence – evidence which interweaves two essential strands of thought.