Attendant taking care of old city row (8)
I believe the answer is:
courtier
'attendant' is the definition.
(courtier is a kind of attendant)
'care of old city row' is the wordplay.
'care of' becomes 'co' (c/o can mean 'care of' when addressing mail).
'old city' becomes 'ur' (ancient city state).
'row' becomes 'tier' (tier is a kind of row).
'co'+'ur'+'tier'='COURTIER'
'taking' is the link.
(Other definitions for courtier that I've seen before include "Rosenkrantz,say" , "who has Palace role?" , "Monarch's companion" , "Royal adviser" , "royal companion" .)