Attractiveness of short lane outside old city (6)
I believe the answer is:
allure
'attractiveness' is the definition.
(allure is a kind of attractiveness)
'short lane outside old city' is the wordplay.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'lane' becomes 'alley' (alley is a kind of lane).
'outside' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'old city' becomes 'ur' (ancient city state).
'alley' with its final letter removed is 'alle'.
'alle' placed around 'ur' is 'ALLURE'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for allure that I've seen before include "Attraction, appeal" , "What siren may do" , "Powerful fascination" , "Charm, magnetism" , "Tempt" .)