After being shown a book of photos depicting the devastation wrought by earthquakes, he began to create detailed architectural drawings of imaginary cityscapes.

[1] In June 2015, the BBC's Lucy Ash reported: "Soon people outside the school started noticing Stephen's gift and aged eight he landed his first commission—a sketch of Salisbury Cathedral for the former Prime Minister Edward Heath".

In 2003, a retrospective of his work, "Not a Camera: the Unique Vision of Stephen Wiltshire", was held in the Orleans House gallery in Twickenham, London.

[9] In May 2005 Wiltshire produced his longest ever panoramic memory drawing of Tokyo on a 32.8-foot-long (10.0 m) canvas within seven days following a helicopter ride over the city.

Since then he has drawn Rome, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Madrid,[10] Dubai,[11][12] Jerusalem[13][14] and London[15] on giant canvasses.

[16] In October 2009 Wiltshire completed the last work in the series of panoramas, an 18-foot (5.5 m) memory drawing of his "spiritual home", New York City.

It is a part of a global advertising campaign[23] for the Swiss bank UBS that carries the theme "We will not rest", The New York Times reported.

[25] In July 2014, Wiltshire drew an aerial panorama of the Singapore skyline from memory after a brief helicopter ride, taking five days to complete the 1 x 4m artwork.

[2] In September 2006 Wiltshire opened his permanent gallery in the Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, London.

[citation needed] In 2011, Wiltshire was made an honorary Fellow of the Society of Architectural Illustrators (SAI).