Introducing the Roseneath Quarantine Window: The new Marchmont landmark

Injecting some wholesomeness into your state-sanctioned daily exercise


During lockdown, it’s important to look out for the little things to stay cheerful. Some Edinburgh students living in Marchmont are on a mission to put a smile on the faces of people walking past their flat. For 42 days (at the time of writing), they’ve been putting hilarious sticky note messages in their window.

You’ve possibly walked past it yourself: they have a prime spot on the corner of Roseneath Street and Marchmont Road. If not, you’ve also possibly seen it on your mate’s Instagram story dotted amongst the thousands of pics of the cherry blossom trees in The Meadows.

They have also set up a fabulous Instagram (@RoseneathQuarantine) so even if you are no longer in Edinburgh you can still see their super cute post-it posts. The window has attracted a loyal fanbase (as well as over 1,200 followers on Instagram, and counting). Some have even made visiting the window part of their daily exercise to see what hilarity they have thought up next.

The Tab Edinburgh spoke to the students behind the window (quite literally) to find out their inspiration.

What inspired you to start making the the window messages in the first place?

“We actually started it because we were going to have a birthday party but had to call it off so we wanted to find something to do to celebrate. We had already joked about putting up signs like ‘The End is Nigh’ but thought it was a bit morbid and wanted to keep moral high. We saw people taking photos of it outside so we thought it would be fun to start an Instagram account so people could see them if they missed it […] and it seemed to kick off! Thank god we did – at least we can spend all the lockdown hours deciding in what signs to do next…”

Did you expect to become such a popular fixture of so many Marchmont residents’ daily walks?

“No not at all! We knew we were in an ideal location for people to see the sign but […] didn’t think it would last so long. But when people started taking photos of it, and once we got such a good response on Instagram, we realised it was getting quite popular.”

Do you feel like you have lost privacy from all the people taking photos of your window? And if so, does this bother you?

“We sometimes have to duck when people take photos and we’re sat eating lunch/dinner, but it’s quite funny watching people taking photos. We wonder how it looks when we do home work outs, and people just see two people jumping around in the living room with music blasting out the windows and how bizarre it must look! Some people even watch whilst we change it which is funny.”

Are you happy about becoming minor Marchmont celebrities?

“We actually hoped to remain largely anonymous apart from people who already knew we lived here, so we are not really sharing our names. We liked the idea that it could be anyone really.”

Are there ever days where you struggle to think of hilarious and creative ones? And if so, what do you do?

“What can we say, we’re quickly becoming an Edinburgh tourist attraction. Normally people tell me I have a shit sense of humour so I finally feel validated. We’re starting to get to the point where we can’t work out what’s lockdown delirium and what’s actually funny, so it can take a while to think up something good. Sometimes we’re inspired by something topical and sometimes have family suggestions that we use, but it’s generally a manic brainstorm the night before!”

Would you consider taking submissions/suggestion via Instagram?

“Absolutely, we’ve already had a few suggestions come through and always like to hear ideas from other people. We love audience participation and have done polls on our insta. We’re actually just about to start our window quiz!”

Finally, will you carry on after lockdown ends?

“We’ve asked ourselves this question so much, and we’re not sure. There’s no concrete end to lockdown, and we feel like we’re in too deep now. I guess we will just see how it goes — we’ve enjoyed it all a lot but we don’t know what people will think when it all over. If we get a five star review on Trip Advisor maybe we will be swayed, but for now I guess you’ll just have to watch this space…don’t worry though, we won’t leave without a bang!”

If you want to see more of the Roseneath Quarantine Window you can follow them on Instagram here.