The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 letter word BOMBAY
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
B
O
M
B
A
Y
More clues leading to the result BOMBAY
- Renamed city business qualification lad possesses
- Old city‘s endless conflict in past
- Fish, when pursued by duck and angry mob in coastal area
- City’s former title — looking back, crowd roar
- A foreign city used to be called such a failure always
- Coastal city formerly having fortune run into cove
- Old city gang is backed by Gulf
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Old city" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case old city = bombay.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.