Well as he knew “Seaview”

[Coffee Break]

I read this part, "Well as he knew “Seaview”", but am finding it difficult to understand it. Could you please let me know what it means? Here is the excerpt:

He crossed the road, walked through the arcade, past the theatre and down to the front where the sea was murmuring a long way out across the sands. The band was playing, but he did not pause beyond dropping into step with its lively march. As he drew away from it the crowd grew thinner; the fresh night air braced his body, but seemed to drowse his mind. The moon had not risen yet, and it was very dark in St. Matthews Road after the glare of the promenade. Well as he knew “Seaview” he stopped once before reaching it, thinking he had arrived.

- R. C. Sherriff, The Fortnight in September, Chapter 15

This is a novel published in 1931, which describes a fortnight in September in which an English family consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, Mary, Dick, and Ernie go on a holiday. While returning to their house named Seaview after his evening visit to his regular bar, Mr. Stevens is having difficulties in reaching the house, because of the darkness.

In this part, I am having difficulties in understanding this inverted expression.
I guess "as" is hidden before the underlined part, so that it would originally be "As well as he knew Seaview"...

But I am not sure if this comparative expression ("as~as") can mean "although" (because I vaguely guess the meaning of "although" might fit into this context. ).

Actually, this kind of structure appears again later in this novel, like the following quote:

It would cost fifteen shillings more each week, and a lot could be done with thirty shillings: two eggs for breakfast; an extra charabanc ride, shrimp paste for tea, and possibly an extra theatre—but good as these things were, they did not give quite the same feeling as sitting on your own private balcony.

So I became curious each time this structure appears in this novel, so I wanted to ask you what it means, and how it can be grammatically analyzed.

 

[5jj]

Well as he knew “Seaview” he stopped once before reaching it, thinking he had arrived.

It means Although he knew "Seaview" well.

 

[Tarheel]

In the phrase "good as these things were" the writer omits the word "as".

 

[Coffee Break]

@5jj and @Tarheel,

Thank you very much for the explanations!
So it means "although" here.
In that case, would it be perhaps okay to understand that, when "as + adjective + as" comes at the beginning of the sentence to make the sentence inverted, it means "although"...?

 

[Tarheel]

@5jj and @Tarheel,

Thank you very much for the explanations!
So it means "although" here.
In that case, would it be perhaps okay to understand that, when "as + adjective + as" comes at the beginning of the sentence to make the sentence inverted, it means "although"...?

By "it" do you mean the phrase in bold?

Now I'm going to have to think about this one. It will probably give me nightmares.

 

[Barque]

when "as + adjective + as" comes at the beginning of the sentence to make the sentence inverted, it means "although"...?

Usually yes, or "In spite of". I hesitate to say it's always the case.

In spite of knowing well where Seaview was ...
Although he knew Seaview's location well ...