The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 3 letter word SKID ROW
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
S
K
I
D
R
O
W
More clues leading to the result SKID ROW
- Little girl in factory sent back poor parts
- Head of statehas altercation on the way down here
- Squalid area, where you can’t keep your feet?
- Runner with promise revolutionised slum area
- Argue after small child brings one to squalid part of town
- Difficult situation as family briefly hampered by rejection of terms
- Small child in front of bank in down-and-outs’ place?
- Queue behind small child where vagrants congregate?
- A quarter of poor people lose control over fight
- Work is scheduled across Germany for the poorest city area
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "squalid part of town" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case squalid part of town = skid row.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.