Early start at five with old Royal Academy in the city (5)

'the city' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

'early start at five with old royal academy' is the wordplay.
'start' says to take the initial letters.
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'five' becomes 'V' (roman numeral).
'with old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English. I am not sure about the 'with' bit.).
'royal academy' becomes 'ra'.
The initial letter of 'early' is 'e'.
'e'+'v'+'o'+'ra'='EVORA'

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?